A Whole New World: Dawning
by Dimensional Phaser
Summary: Cybertron has been restored and Jemina is now a Prime. However, many Cybertronians don't take kindly to it, and many old enemies see it as an opportunity. Add in sparklings and Jemina and Optimus are in for a world neither had ever expected. Sequel to A Whole New World, KTA Dedicated.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! It's up! Oh my gosh, i was squealing and wiggling in excitement the entire time i wrote this! So the first few chaps will be kinda slow because i had to think of something to start with, haha, but hopefully it'll pick up soon. Anyway, enjoy and leave me your thoughts! I haven't heard form you guys in sooo long and i wanna talk to you guys again.

* * *

 **I watched them, though they knew it not, and smiled**. I had been watching him for eons with the other Primes though I was never able to utter a word to him. Sighing, I turned to Alpha Trion as he reentered the room, a slightly mischievous glint in his optics. He walked over and rested a servo on my shoulder pad, "He has finally settled down."

I laughed, "Yes, I am only sorry it took so long."

"I take it you approve of her then?" A-3 asked.

I nodded, "Is that really a question? When I became one with the Allspark I was hoping he would find another…" I looked back into the pool through which I have watched Optimus for many, many years. It warmed my spark to see her being lovingly held in his arms, bonded with him—something I had hoped for myself while I lived.

I have watched Optimus ever since I became one with the Allspark and was sparkbroken when I saw Optimus start shutting others out. By the time they finally reached Earth you could barely recognize the Orion Pax side of him but Jemina had pulled that out of him again.

Elita turned to Alpha Trion, "You chose your guardian well."

A-3 laughed, "I knew she was hiding something when I asked her about the Omega Keys I just never guessed that it would be to that extent."

Solus walked in and saw the two in front of the viewing screen, "Watching over our new sister are you?"

Solomus stood on the other side of Alpha Trion and nodded, "Why would we not. The poor child will require vast amounts of guidance for the times to come."

Elita gave a halfhearted glare, "Remember that she is still a child."

"Yes, and she will no doubt make such childish mistakes." Micronus spoke.

Solus rolled her optics, "Don't be so hard on her Micronus. She save Optimus' life—again."

"It will require more than just that in the future." Micronus growled.

Prima let out an amused chuckle at Micronus' actions, "You are only upset that the new Prime is larger than you."

"Don't be picking on the small guy! We've got just as much fight in us as you do!"

Elita thought for a second and smiled, "Well think of it this way. In her human form she _is_ smaller than you."

"She _is_ a human." He argued.

"So?" Solus asked, "I finally have another feme to fend you all off with."

"We're not that bad!" Solomus defended.

"Mh, some of you."

"Let's not forget that it will hopefully be a while before she joins us here." Prima interjected. There were hums of agreement among them.

* * *

 **"** **Aliena** , Aliena it is time to get up."

Optimus' deep voice and soft shaking stirred her from her sleep. "Mhmmmm…"

Optimus smiled, holding back a laugh as Aliena rolled over. "Aliena, there is work that needs to be done."

She curled into a tighter ball and proceeded to ignore him, quite content to go back into recharge—not having a proper recharge in the few cycles proceeding Unicron's reawakening and attack.

Optimus watched her antics with a heavy sigh, this was taking more work than he had expected. Deciding he had enough, he reached down to scoop her up. He just had his servos under her wings when a fist came flying out, hitting his arm rather painfully.

Aliena shot straight up and hissed, "Optimus your servos are _freezing!_ "

Optimus only looked at her blankly, "Well at least it got you up. I was beginning to worry."

Aliena groaned, "Is it morning already?"

"Yes."

"Great." She stood and stretched a bit, "What are we working on today?"

"Now that some of the landing docks are repaired we should begin work on shelters. I highly doubt many Autobots would be willing to stay in the Nemesis and we couldn't house that many more."

Aliena smiled grimly, "Yeah, I can understand that. Staying here gives me the willies."

"The, willies?"

"The creeps." She explained.

Optimus nodded as Smokescreen came running up to them, "Guys! Returning bots! There's a ship that's landing now! Oh Primus, who do you think it is?! Oh, I wonder if it's the twins, or possibly-"

Optimus set a servo on his shoulder and smiled softly, "We will be down shortly."

Smokescreen nodded with a solute and eagerly ran off to greet the new bots.

Aliena however, she wasn't so eager. She stood in the hallway holding her arm uncertainly.

Optimus reached out and gently gripped her servo, "It will be alright Aliena."

"Do they _have_ to know? I-I mean, can't we tell them later, or-"

"Everything will be fine. We won't tell them about your human half yet, I do not believe that they are ready for that, _yet_."

" _I'm_ not ready for that yet…if ever." Her intakes started increasing, "You know, I don't think I'm ready for this now…"

He held her close as they neared the door, "You will be fine, I will be right here."

She took a deep intake and nodded.

It wasn't far to the landing docks and the other Autobots were already there greeting them. As they neared she noticed Knockout standing back, looking down. She released Optimus' servo and walked over to him as Optimus continued on to welcome the bots home.

He looked at her and smiled, although it was a bit forced, "Don't feel comfortable going near them either?"

She nodded, "Although for a bit different reasons."

He grimaced, "I don't think they'll take kindly to me…"

She shrugged and eyed him, still warry after all the times he had tried to kill her. "Well, if I can try and get used to it, so can they."

Knockout laughed dryly, "I hope so…"

"They better, considering Optimus is planning on giving most Decepticons a choice to live in peace or…yeah."

"What will the counsel think of that?"

"Thank Primus there is no counsel right now."

He tried to hide a smirk but a small chuckle escaped him, "Yeah, you get to have fun dealing with them when it is formed."

Aliena circled a digit in the air like a helicopter taking off, "Yippee. Politics, my favorite thing."

"Aliena!"

Aliena paled a bit as Optimus called for her and forced herself to walk over.

He turned to the dozen bots, "Autobots, this is Aliena Prime."

She didn't recognize any of them so they each stared at each other with blank or slightly confused faces.

Finally, a mech who looked close to Wheeljack's build spoke, "When did she become a Prime? Who was she?"

"Recently, just after our planet's restoration. However she has been on Earth with me and my team for quite some time."

He turned and smiled at her before saying something in a strange tongue.

She blinked at him before turning to Optimus, "Am I supposed to know what he just said?"

Optimus frowned, "I did not think of that."

The mech grew confused and she asked, "Think of what?"

"You do not know Cybertronian. At least, not the spoken form."

The new mech frowned, "How could a Prime _not_ know her own language?"

"I, uh," Aliena stammered and looked down, "Haven't lived on Cybertron before now."

Optimus explained, "Her family left before war had begun and made a new home on Earth where my team found them. She grew up learning their native language."

The new bots frowned and a femme spoke with slight malice, "She seems like a terrible choice to be a Prime them. What connection does she have to Cybertron?"

Aliena wanted to feel angered by the words but found them too true to argue against, even if she did care for Cybertron.

Optimus on the other hand did little to cover his scorn, a deep frown crossing his faceplate. " _She_ is my sparkmate, I will ask that you refrain from any further comments of the like."

A few gasps were heard in the group before the femme nodded, "My apologies."

Aliena turned to Optimus, "If it's all the same, I'm going to go on patrol."

She turned and hurried away, transforming and taking off into the sky—heading for where Ultra Magnus was patrolling. She found him returning to the Nemesis but continued on, skirting along the Sea of Rust for several miles and only briefly checking her scanners.

She was nearing Darkmount when she decided to turn back when a blip on her scanners picked up life. Aliena slowed and transformed just outside the citadel, one servo forming a blaster while the other remained clenched—ready to use her abilities.

Treading softly, she peered around a few corners as she made her way deeper into the citadel, following the softly blinking light that meant life. As she got farther and deeper into citadel she started regretting coming in and considered turning back when a faint whine echoed through the halls.

Aliena stopped dead in her tracks and listened for a minute, not hearing anything, before starting again for the direction that the whine came from. Two minutes later she entered a hallway that had the scrap blown out of it. The metal was bent and bowed, some places had a clear hole blown straight through it and other sections had metal shards sticking out of the walls and floors.

She observed the damage and could see that the impact sights were fairly fresh, they couldn't have been more than a few days old. A groan then a whine snapped her helm up and she carefully picked her way through the debris and holes. Her blaster reverted to a servo but she kept it ready in case of a surprise attack…and surprised she was, just in a very different way.

The room was fairly large, a few crates and broken weapons littered the room but her attention was fixed on the two dismembered bodies lying on the floor. Face taunt, she cautiously approached them and stared wide eyed at the two offlined Predacons.

"What happened?" She breathed.

Another whine and a scraping sound whipped her helm around, blaster onlined again, to the far end of the room to find the first reborn Predacon.

"Predaking?" Aliena asked cautiously.

A tired optic opened as the Predacon looked at her. He growled lowly but said and did nothing.

Disarming her blaster Aliena took another step closer, "Hey, uh-mm. Hang on, I'll call the bots…I'm sure Knockout can help…my gosh _that_ sounds wrong to say."

Predaking growled again.

"You, don't want help?"

There was no answer or response of any kind.

Scared, she walked over to him though watched him closely. She knelt next to him and started looking over his wounds which were many and quite severe. She bit her lip, she couldn't switch her forms here, she'd suffocate. Closing her optics, she concentrated on creating her holoform—still a foreign concept that Optimus was teaching her.

She slipped a hand under Predaking's armor and found a heavily damaged Energon line and set to fixing it while she also focused her abilities on slowing the Energon and supplying his systems with new Energon—enough to survive but not enough to shock it.

Aliena tried several times to reach up to her com link to call for help, but every time Predaking would growl at her and she would stop. It was several hours before she felt satisfied that she had fixed most of the leaking Energon lines, although, many more systems were damaged and she had no knowledge of how to fix them.

Her holoform faded and she stood back to check him over, Predaking waking from his light recharge and staring at her intensely. She looked at him with thin lips, "You need medical help, and I have none of that. Please, let me call Knockout, or someone."

The growl that she had come to understand as 'no' reverberated from his throat again. She glared, "You're more stubborn than I am, and that's saying something, and not a good something."

She sighed, "And I can't just leave you here…I suppose your self-repair systems should kick in soon…even if they won't repair most of the damage…"

She sat down near him and leaned against a wall, closing her optics and focused on giving him a small but constant supply of Energon. While she had been able to fix some of the major lines, but there were only a few even her holoform could reach—there were still many, _many_ more she was sure that were still leaking.

She sighed and looked at Predaking, who had still to move more than an optic.

She felt a slight tugging at her spark along with some worry and concern. She smiled, Optimus, _of course he's getting worried…how long have I been gone?_ She did her best to send reassurance that she was fine…but like much else it was something that she didn't really understand and that Optimus was trying to teach her. Unfortunately, that particular action seemed to something that Cybertronians learned in sparklinghood…so Optimus was struggling to explain and teach her how to do it.

But it wasn't like she couldn't, she had lots of times…when her emotions ran rampant, but never consciously. She hoped she'd succeeded but there was little to do about it now.

Deep intakes drew her attention to Predaking and her brow dipped low as she watched him with some worry. She couldn't help feeling confused, what had happened that two of the Predacons died and almost, and still possibly, a third?

She thought about leaving him, she'd done all she could for him and he obviously didn't want any more help, but then she'd feel guilty _for_ leaving him in this condition. Aliena leaned her helm back and laughed dryly, "Predaking, you've put me quite a predicament…I think it might be best if Optimus doesn't know about this just yet. At least not until you can tell me what happened."

* * *

Ok, so, I've been following the marvel universe, saw thor Ragnarok and guardians of the galaxy 2 and there were light bulbs going off, like you have no idea the ideas and possibilities that were playing out. I'll get to working on the avengers crossover soon, i'm going to let this story grow a tad more before i do though. however, there will be a lot in the avengers crossover that _won't be here_ , such as some power growth and basically all of Jemina's backstory (by this i mean her powers and how the heck she has them *wink, wink*)

Well, that's all for now folks!


	2. Chapter 2

I have another chapter for y'all! It was soo good to connect with you guys again and without further ado-Enjoy!

 _ **Shout Outs!:**_

 **Icy's last breath**

Nope, that is not fine, OFF WITH HER HEAD! Haha, glad you liked it.

 **Guest**

 **Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh it finally out I have been waiting a loooong time but is finnaly out (doing happy dance) opps sorry I am just really happy please let the next update come out soon I can tell this story is going to be good if not better than the last one :)**

Sorry it took so long :p I'm going to try and keep this at a constant, especially right now, it's my baby. Thank you, i hope this surpasses the first one. i think that should be the goal of any sequel and so on is to constantly make it better.

 **NovaShifter15**

Oh good, i hope i don't kill it. the twins, oh the twins *grins evily*

 **Coolabigirl**

You good? Don't forget to breath-always a good thing.  
You died and came back? What!?  
Thanks, i thought she deserved _something,_ even if it was brief.  
I was wondering but that's fine, sparklings will come...patience young padawan :)

* * *

 **It must have been several hours later when Aliena opened her optics again, she shifted a bit to uncramp her wings when a foreign weight held her back.** Optics fully onlined now she looked down to see a large wing resting over her legs while the even intakes of Predaking brushed her servo. She couldn't help the smile that graced her before she frowned again, seeing the holes and tears in his wings.

Carefully as she could, she slid her legs out from under his wings and moved to inspect the damage more. Because of his shifting she was able to see that his left side was just as bad as his right. Activating her holoform, she fixed the Energon lines as best she could before nodding and standing up, intending to leave—at least for the moment.

A low growl caused her to turn around. Predaking was awake and staring at her intently, his optics relaying just how much pain he was in.

She frowned and kneeled next to him, placing a servo on his shoulder before her optics glowed a bit—supplying him with more Energon. "I'll, be back later. I promise. But Optimus is getting really worried and, since you don't want me to com anyone for help, I need to bring some medical supplies here…alright?"

She had no idea where her steadiness of voice came from, or her confidence, she just hoped that it would remain. Because she was borderline terrified right now.

Predaking looked at her for a moment more before he released a deep intake, mimicking a sigh, and his body laxed some.

Aliena left and found an exit down the hallway. She flew quickly back to Iacon and transformed at its edge, taking in the scenery. It was a darkened mirror image of what she'd seen on her first trip there. She smiled fondly at the memory, she hadn't thought anything good of it at the time, she hurt like no tomorrow and the only thought that kept her from thinking she was dead was just how much pain there was. As she entered the city she could almost see herself 'running' from probably the kindest bot.

She laughed and shook her helm and walked a bit faster until she saw the Nemesis. _Home, for the moment._ As soon as she broke the building line there was a shout and an engine, turning, it was Optimus.

When he transformed his expression was a cross between worried and disapproval. "Aliena, why did you not com? I was worried something happened."

She offered a weak smile, "Uh, couldn't."

"Please don't do that to me again…not with Shockwave and Starscream unaccounted for." Optimus embraced her and she returned it whole-heartedly.

"I'll try, but no promises. So, what needs to be done?"

He turned, "We have a few shelters rebuilt but, much more still needs to be done."

She nodded, "I'll see if they need any help with the high work."

He smiled, "I will be transporting materials if you need me."

Aliena laughed and walked away to help rebuild. She was a bit more suited to help with the rooves as she could hover via foot thrusters and was currently guiding a crane like devise. It had only been half a solar cycle but three more ships had already arrived. She landed next to Bee and said in surprise, "It's only been a week, maybe two? So many people are already returning."

Bee grinned, "I know, isn't it great? We'll have more help and restore Cybertron sooner, bots can start getting back to normal life and-" He stopped suddenly when he saw Alien's glazed looked, "Je-Aliena?"

She turned to him suddenly, looking apologetic, "I'm sorry Bee, I didn't mean to tune you out…I just feel out of place."

He placed a servo on her shoulder, "A lot of us are going to have a lot of things to get used to." He grinned, "Hey, you know, once there's some more bots, you and Optimus can get started on a new counsel. I'm sure there's going to need to be some things that are different from the old one, especially now that the caste system is gone."

She sighed, almost angrily, "That's just _it_ Bee, I know _nothing_ about Cybertron—or at least nothing that matters when it comes to leading and being a Prime. Uhh, I don't think I have to worry about the first one though…if the majority of bots have the same opinion as the first group of returnees."

Bee frowned and stepped in front of her, "Alright, who are you and where is Jemina?"

Aliena looked down, "I don't know, back on Earth I guess."

Bee's frown deepened, "Just because you become a Prime doesn't mean you're supposed to lose who you are, Primus made you a Prime for, Primus knows how many reasons. I've seen you take the lead and do it well."

She scoffed with a slight laugh, "I was a nervous wreck the entire time and, you saw them, I don't even want to try and lead a people who I don't know anything about. What I did, I did to save Optimus and give _them_ a leader because I can't do it. Maybe Ultra Magnus could for a bit but," she laughed, "even if the Decepticons are gone, what's going to stop something like the old counsel cropping up again?"

Bee beamed and pointed, "See! This is why he did it! They might not see it but I do. Aliena, who would think of that _just_ after we defeated Unicron? I sure as heck didn't. As much I hate to admit it, I was ready to let Optimus sacrifice himself for the Allspark."

"You would have to." She said simply.

He shrugged, "Yeah, but I didn't try to do _anything_ about it. But you did and now we have two Primes! Maybe you're not the political leader we'll need. And maybe, you're going to need a lot of help. But all Primes are made for a reason, we'll find yours."

She smiled, "Thanks Bee."

"No problem."

Aliena looked at the Nemesis which was lying not far off. "I think I'm going to grab some Energon and call it a day. See ya tomorrow Bee."

He waved her goodbye and turned to finish up for the day.

She hurried to the Nemesis and grabbed a cube, depositing it in her subspace, before making her way to the med bay. She looked inside then peaked over her shoulder. Seeing no one, she hurried to grab a few basic first aid supplies that she _knew_ she'd know how to use.

Once the supplies were tucked safely under her arms she left, pausing as she passed her berthroom. She intaked deeply before turning and entering the room, minutes later she was in the air again, making an arch towards Darkmount.

She landed on the small runway she had found near the room with Predaking and made her way inside. She was immediately struck with how quiet it was and her spark jumped. She ran into the room and skidded to a stop in front of Predaking, servo resting on his chest armor and felt a faint pulse. She sighed, her initial fear leaving her immediately.

When Aliena looked up again Predaking was looking straight at her. She smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, I thought, well I thought you offlined while I was out."

Setting down the supplies she brought, the first thing she grabbed was the Energon cube. While she could do with a refuel, she wouldn't be for the worse without it. She looked at Predaking for a moment before frowning, _how to get him to drink it without spilling most of it…_

She began looking around for something that could make the process easier but whirled around at the sound of metal gears whirring and clanking. Predaking, in his bipedal form now, laid of the floor and she gasped, half in surprise and half in pain, "Are you ok? I didn't think you could do that yet…not with your injuries being so bad."

He slowly pushed himself to a wall, Aliena was tempted to help but she had a strong feeling that he'd demand to do it on his own, before he answered—again surprising her as she didn't expect an answer. "My self-repair systems healed enough for me to do so."

His voice was somehow even deeper than Optimus', borderline growl—she hadn't remembered that from the very brief times they'd spoken. She shook herself out of her surprise and nodded, handing him the cube which he took gratefully, before grabbing the medical supplies and starting on some of his other wounds.

She was currently working on his right arm when he asked, "So why didn't you tell the others about me?"

She froze, not meeting his optics, before she continued working, "You made it pretty clear you didn't want outside help…why?"

He frowned, "They view me as a beast, and rightly so, but nothing more."

Aliena nodded her head in a 'yeah, so?' fashion before asking, "You guys helped to save Cybertron, I think that merits something."

He frowned, "I also do not wish to be around them for any reason."

She sighed, "Then why let me come back and help you?"

He blinked, "I'm, not sure. You already knew I suppose."

"Hardly a good reason." She finished with the major tear on his forearm armor and moved to a deep gash on his side. "If you don't mind, what happened? I didn't think you guys were this hurt after battling Unicron's undead."

Predaking growled deeply and she stiffened slightly. "Starscream. We found him here and meant to take our just revenge."

She looked at him with wide optics, "He-he did this? I didn't think he had _that_ much power."

Predaking scoffed, "He has no power, he merely stumbled upon this room's self-defenses…I have never seen such weapons, not even on the Nemesis."

Aliena blinked and looked around, "I wonder what was here that was worth all that protection?"

"Energon probably."

She frowned and looked around the room, burn marks, holes and tears littering all corners of the room. "I don't think so, the shots would have ignited the cubes."

"I do not care…all I care about is that they killed my only and last kin."

She nodded in an understanding fashion but stayed silent.

* * *

 **Optimus** tiredly walked into his berthroom, eager to recharge. He entered the room, but it felt strangely empty. Looking around, he realized what it was—Aliena was not there. His brow creased in worry, Aliena had been acting different when she returned. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, not with how the returning Autobots had greeted her, but now he was staring to worry.

A soft glow on the table grabbed his attention, a data pad. _It shouldn't be getting like that unless there's a message…_ Hurriedly, he grabbed the data pad turned it on. Filling the screen was a simple message, " _I've gone out for a flight, don't know when I'll be back. ~Jemina_ "

Optimus set the data down and laid back on the berth, whatever Aliena was going through—she needed to figure it out for herself.

* * *

 **Hours seemed** to pass as she patched him up, most of what she could do was only mesh work but she hoped it was enough. She stood to leave, Predaking having fallen into recharge again. As she neared the exit soft 'tink, tink, tink' on metal grabbed her attention. Aliena looked up and saw that it was raining and she frowned, she briefly remembered that the rain on Cybertron was acid. Some of it blew in and a few drops landed on her and she hissed, "Defiantly _not_ going out anytime soon."

Making her way back inside to where Predaking rested she leaned back on a wall, falling into recharge before her optics closed.

Predaking was the first to online. He saw Aliena leaning against the wall a bit further down and wondered why she was still here. He groaned and sat up more, making an attempt to stand, but didn't quite yet have the strength. He fell back to the floor with a resounding crash, onlining Aliena immediately.

"Predaking?"

He groaned again but said firmly, "I am fine. Just attempted to stand prematurely."

She smiled sympathetically and nodded.

"Why are you still here?"

Aliena nodded outside, "Acid rain, I'm not goin' anywhere until it's done."

Predaking nodded.

Aliena looked at the two offlined Predacons and asked, "Predaking? Once you're healed, do you want me to bring Optimus here, to give them a proper burial?"

Predaking blinked but shook his head, "I will burry my brothers once I can fly again, which shouldn't be much longer."

Aliena grinned, "Just don't push it _too_ hard, don't want to have to repair you again."

The room was still and just as quiet, Aliena looked around—thinking. It seemed like the weapons had been set up to fire at everything and at every angle within the room. It just, didn't make sense. Why fill a room full of defenses and have them destroy the entire room?

She shook her helm, maybe it was a testing center, that was about all she could think of.

*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*

Two days passed in a similar fashion. During daylight hours Aliena would help rebuild then check on Predaking, she was usually back at the Nemesis before Optimus came back though.

Optimus entered the room and saw Aliena on the berth, already in a deep recharge. She seemed to be tired out more recently, but that could easily be attributed to the rebuilding and her learning whatever she could about Cybertron—which was slow going due to time.

He sighed tiredly and laid down next to her, following Aliena into recharge.

*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*

Aliena held a support beam in place while Bulkhead welded it to the spot. He turned to her, "Hey, are you sure you don't want to greet the returnee's?"

She shrugged, "I'm fine, it's not like I know them."

"Oh yeah, I forget sometimes."

She laughed, "Glad one of us can, if you want to Bulk, you can go. This house can wait a minute."

Bulkhead was about to answer when his expression changed suddenly, "No, Jazz?!"

"Hey there Bulkhead, what's up?"

Bulkhead ran over and hugged the mech, picking him up in the process. "Nothing much until you came along! How long has it been?"

Jazz laughed, "Too long. And who is this?"

Aliena looked at him incredulously, "Seriously? He's not here for an hour and he's—Gah!"

Bulkhead laughed, "Hey, at least he can notice a pretty bot."

Aliena was seriously considering bending light around her when Jazz laughed again, "Ah come on Bulk, hey, I have an idea." He turned to Aliena, "Bee asked if I wanted to go on patrol with him, ya wanna join?"

Aliena was about to flat out tell him she was perfectly fine not, when Bulkhead leaned over, "Uh, it's that or greeting more bot, I think Optimus is coming this way."

She glanced over her shoulder and sure enough he was walking their way. "Scrap."

Jazz grinned, "I'll meet you at the Nemesis."

She nodded and started to walk away when Optimus called for her, "Aliena, wait-"

She turned and said quickly, pointing at the Nemesis with both servos, "Aha, I have patrol, like now…"

Optimus sighed but nodded, watching her transform and leave quickly. He turned to Bulkhead, "I'm I missing something?"

He shook his head, "I think the new bots just make her nervous."

Optimus looked at her sadly, "But she must start getting used to them and she can only by being around them."

Bulkhead stood next to him and shrugged, "Give her a little time, I think she's still trying to get over the shock of being made a Prime. I mean, at least when she was made into a techno-organic she had some warning—she didn't have any for this."

"I understand, I just don't know what to do."

Aliena landed next to Bee and Jazz. Bee smiled at her, "We're going to check out the Kaon sector today, Starscream might be hiding there somewhere."

She nodded and pushed down the butterflies forming, _Predaking is there_.

They combed the sector pretty thoroughly, Jazz and Bee checking everything out at street level while Aliena checked from the air, everything so far was clear. If she had been in her bot form, she would have been shaking her head, Bee and Jazz were just too funny. They had picked up like they had never parted.

Jazz suddenly asked, "So Prime, what's your story?"

It took Aliena a minute to realize that he was talking to her. "Oh, uh. Nothing impressive, ran into Optimus and his group on Earth and well, yeah."

Jazz laughed, "Come on, even Optimus had a more interesting story than that."

"Good for him."

Bee sighed and laughed, "Actually, she's leaving out a lot. She's saved Optimus' keaster several times, not to mention she knows how to get out of Ratchet's care."

There was a sound of surprise from Jazz, "Alright Aliena, teach me your ways. How do you do it?"

"Talk him to death."

"Nah, there's gotta be more than that."

"Sure, but Ratchet would kill me if I told you."

"I won't tell him."

Aliena laughed, "Alright, this is how you get out of Ratchet's care, ready?"

"Yes."

"Go to Knockout first."

"Wha-? No! That's not it!"

Bee laughed so hard he fought to stay straight on the road. "I have yet to see you pull that one."

"I don't know, might soon."

"I'll pay to see that."

"Oh haha. I'd like to see you go to Knockout."

"Now hang on!" Bee cried, "No need for drastic measures…I'll call Raf."

"Who's Raf?" Jazz asked.

Aliena could almost see Bee's smile, "One of the humans we met on Earth, and one of my best friends."

Aliena sighed, "It's been almost three week now…"

"I'm sure he's doing fine, Jayce is a strong kid. Besides, he gets along with Ratchet better than you do."

Aliena would have smiled if she could, "He has a soft spot for him and Raf I think."

She could almost see Bee's grin, "Yeah, I don't think I've _ever_ seen him crack so fast as he does with Jayce."

"Looks like we found the old mech's soft spot." Jazz laughed, "Sparklings."

Bee transformed suddenly, "The Decepticon capitol, we should check it out."

Aliena landed next to them, frown prominent but neither mech saw it. They entered cautiously and she was thinking of every way possible to keep them from finding Predaking—leading them on a few 'detours' but they still needed to check those areas so it was fine.

They reached a fork and Aliena recognized it as one of the paths she had taken when she found Predaking. "I'll go left. You and Jazz can go right."

Bee nodded, a bit stiffly, and left with Jazz.

Aliena wandered into the hallway and waited a minute before quietly running the rest of the way. She sighed when she entered the destroyed corridor. As she entered the room a low whistle from behind her stopped Aliena dead in her tracks.

"What in Primus' name happened here?" Jazz asked in astonishment.

* * *

So...? I hope that wasn't too bad of a cliff hanger. Well, considering where I've left you guys before this should be nothing ;)  
But I've finally figured it out, who i am when i write cliffhangers. I laugh like the Joker and grin like Loki at you guys. Its bad, i know, but i can't help it. Leave your thoughts! I love seeing what you guys are thinking ;)


	3. Chapter 3

Hey, sorry but short chapter this time but i figured it was better than nothing and seemed to flow better if i ended it there. Hope you enjoy! ;)

 _ **Shout Outs!:**_

 **Icy's last breath**

Thanks, i figured he should be a tad lost :)

 **Aloris**

She'll meet some more bots next chap ;)

 **NovaShifter15**

I don't know ;p  
Gah! That bugged me! Oh my gosh, so much in that series bugged me. so hopefully i can explain some things-at least how i think they can be explained.

 **Coolabigirl**

Yeah, sad, but soon hopefully that'll change. Oh cliffies, my dear friend XD

* * *

 **Aliena** whirled around and grabbed her spark, "Jazz! For Primus' sake are you trying to give me a heart attack?!"

Jazz smiled, "Sorry. This just caught me by surprise is all. Scrap, looks like a serious battle happened here."

Bee walked out of an adjoining hallway, not to far down from the one she had come from. Aliena frowned slightly, "How did you get here?"

Bee shrugged, "Hallway looped. Hm…looks like this happened recently." He bent down and examined something on the ground, "Predacons were here, look at the claw marks…their just as fresh as the blaster marks."

Jazz's optic ridges rose a bit, "You know, I don't think I ever met anyone who could scout as well as you Bee."

Bee smiled at the comment.

Aliena tuned out their conversation and walked into the room, not knowing how she was going to explain—Predaking was gone, along with the two offlined Predacons. She sighed in relief as the two mech came in.

Bee gasped, "I thought the hallway was bad."

Jazz frowned, "This doesn't make sense, what was this place? It couldn't have been made to protect anything."

Aliena shrugged, "Maybe it was a testing center."

Jazz nodded, "That's about all it could be. Man this place was desecrated."

For the first time Aliena actually explored the room past just looking at it.

"Hey Bee," Jazz called, "come look at this, Energon."

Bee saw the large stain on the floor and frowned, "This is fresh…no one could have lost this much Energon and still function. So who carried him out?"

Aliena couldn't bear to turn around and bit her lip while she stared at the wall hard. She blinked at the wall, still trying to figure out what could have possibly been of interest here when a thought struck her. Predaking had said that it was Starscream who had set off the room's defenses and if he thought that the Predacons were killed in the barrage—then there was fairly good possibility that he might still be here.

She turned to tell Bee as much so they could hurry up and check the rest of the citadel when she heard a 'click'.

Jazz froze and Bee stared at the floor in dread, "Please tell me you didn't step on a trigger."

"Alright, I won't tell you."

The door to the room began to close and Bee cried, "Run for it!"

Aliena's optics glowed brighter and the door stopped. Bee dove through and Jazz was about to follow but a crack and a shockwave sent him sprawling backwards as the door slammed shut. She ran over to him, "Are you ok Jazz?"

He nodded and held his helm, "Yeah, I should be."

"Aliena, Jazz?!" Bee's panicked voice seeped through the door.

"We're ok Bee!" Aliena shouted back, "Is there a console out there? Or some other way to override this?"

There was a moment's pause before, "No, hang on and I'll try to blast through the doors."

Jazz stood, "Forget it Bee! I'm pretty sure those doors were meant to withstand these weapons in here, you're not going to do anything but scratch it."

"I'm going to com for help."

Gas started seeping up from the floor and Aliena yelled, "Hurry!"

Jazz pressed next to Aliena and her optics glowed again.

Jazz took a step and hit something, "What in Cybertron? Oh scrap!"

"It's alright Jazz, that's me"

Jazz blinked at her, "I don't see any kind of device."

She frowned, looking around, "That's because it's just something I can do."

"You're one weird bot."

She laughed, "Thanks." Her optics widened as she saw a console on the wall near the door. "Jazz, move with me and stay right next to me, I can't make this much bigger without overtaxing myself."

Jazz nodded and they moved over to the console, whatever the gas was it was now up to Jazz's knees. "I might be able to hack it, but you'd need to let the shield down and I'm not sure that's a good idea."

She growled, feeling around the room but found no outside energy source. "I'm going to try and access the console, I need you to keep an optic out in case anything happens—good or bad."

Jazz nodded and Aliena closed her optics and focused on the console, her denta ground together as she focused on keeping it on, sifting through information as fast as possible, and keeping the shield up.

Jazz frowned as the gas continued to rise, pressing closer to Aliena as the shield seemed to shrink a bit. She groaned and her knees buckled slightly, Jazz caught her instantly and optics flickered from her to the console to the gas.

"Aliena?"

"I almost got it-" The console blinked suddenly and the door opened.

He almost jumped for joy but was practically holding Aliena. They stayed put for another minute until all the gas had been vented out of the room and she promptly fell to the floor, chest rising and falling as she fought to stay awake.

"Aliena? Hey kid, say something."

"Stop, shouting."

Jazz smiled, "You gonna make it?"

She nodded, "Long enough for Optimus to chew me out. Do me a favor and _don't_ call Ratchet."

"If we can get you back to the Nemesis without you fallin' inta forced recharge it's a deal."

They stumbled out of the room, Jazz being her crutch as her world constantly faded from light to dark before she forced her optics on. As they walked through the hallways they began to become overly familiar to Aliena, she would see shadows pass that looked like flyers and she could swear she heard a voice over the intercom systems. She gasped and hit the wall, servo holding her side tightly as it burned in pain.

Jazz held her arm and started to become very worried as her behavior became erratic. "Aliena, we're almost there. I'm sure Bee's already commed for help."

Aliena started struggling against him, "No, stop. Leave me alone!"

She shoved Jazz away and fell to the floor, knees too weak to hold her any longer.

Jazz's face hardened a bit and grabbed her arms, "Aliena, you need to listen to me and snap out of it. It isn't real. We're fine, you're fine. Darkmount is abandoned, there's no one here but us."

Her servos balled and he was suddenly thrown against a wall as she trembled. He groaned and clutched his helm and turned at the sound of peeds, "Bee? Be careful! She's, having a moment."

To his surprise Optimus ran by him and instantly grabbed Aliena, uttering deep, guttural words that seemed to rise from his very spark.

Aliena gasped, trying to draw air into her filters, as she lost control of her abilities—nightmare-like images washed over her vision as she tried to find a way out of the Nemesis, a way back to Optimus.

She was suddenly enwrapped in a firm grasp and drawn close to something— _not something_. She could feel his spark pulsing strong against his armor, her own slowing down and matching his. "I have you Aliena, your safe. I'm not letting go."

She clutched his armor and listened to his spark and voice as he kept talking lowly, reminding her that he was right there. Her vision started to clear, enough to see that the shadows weren't shadows at all but Bee, Jazz and Arcee. Exhausted she closed her optics and completely sank into his grasp.

Jazz watched in slight fascination as Optimus spoke, it sounded Cybertronian but he'd never heard anything like it before. He very quietly asked Bee, "What's he saying?"

Bee shrugged, "Haven't a clue. Never heard anything like it."

Arcee blinked as she listened, "I have, a long time ago—shortly before the war started. It's the Language of the Primes."

Bee gasped, " _That's_ the Language of the Primes?"

"You mean that all the time you spent with him you never heard him talk like that before?" Jazz asked astonished.

Both Arcee and Bee shook their heads no.

Optimus stood, Aliena in his arms and unconscious. "Bulkhead, we need a bridge."

When they arrived at the Nemesis, several bots—old and new—had gathered. "Is she alright?" A femme who came with Jazz asked.

Optimus nodded, "I believe so, though both of you should still be examined." He finished, looking at Jazz.

Jazz nodded his helm, "No problem, if you explained what happened."

"I could say the same. Knockout, she may require medical assistance."

Optimus set her on the berth and turned to Knockout who was running a scanner over her. "All this time I spent trying to offline her and now I'm making sure she's alright. Primus certainly has a sense of humor." The scanner beeped a few times and he turned to Optimus, "It says that she's fine, only that she's put herself into a forced recharge…has she really gone that long without recharging?"

Optimus shook his helm. "No. It is more likely that she overused her abilities."

Knockout frowned, "Does she do that often?"

Optimus nodded and turned to Jazz who had followed them in, "If she over uses or extends them. What happened?"

Jazz blinked then answered, "After the room's defenses were activated, some kind of gas started seeping in. She, made some kind of shield to protect us and then somehow activated the control panel." Jazz shook his helm, "She never touched it, not once."

Bee stood next to Jazz and added, "She also made a shield to hold the door open long enough for me to get out."

Optimus frowned, "You mean she projected the shield?"

Bee nodded, "Yeah, she finally figured it out."

Aliena groaned on the berth, her optics wide when Knockout's face was the first she saw.

"How are you feeling?"

She jumped with a small shout. "Knockout! Ah, are you _trying_ to give me a heart attack!"

He frowned, "I was _trying_ to make sure that you would be alright. The thanks I get."

Bee smiled and said, "Don't worry Knockout, she gives Ratchet the same treatment."

Knockout rolled his optics and growled, "Glad to I'm not treated any differently." He turned to Optimus and Aliena, "Well, I haven't a clue what to do with Techno-organics. Whatever you usually do I suppose."

Optimus helped Aliena stand, "Rest then."

"Great. I could sleep though."

Knockout waved them off as he looked at his scans, no doubt interested as these were the first scans he'd been able to get from her.

Jazz followed the pair out and asked, "You sure you're alright Aliena? You didn't look to good."

She smiled and waved it off a bit, "I'll be fine by tomorrow, no biggie."

Jazz nodded and left.

Optimus and Aliena walked down the corridors towards their room when Optimus smiled, mischief in his optic, Aliena missing it. Without warning he turned and picked her up, carrying her bridal style. She cried out and grabbed him around the shoulders, "Optimus!"

He grinned, "Yes?"

She shook her head and rested it on his chest armor, "You're hopeless sometimes."

He laughed as the door to their berthroom opened, "You know, you're not as heavy as I thought you were."

Aliena scoffed lightly and hit his chest, "That's it. You can sleep in the dog house tonight."

He set her down on the berth and laid next to her, tracing her wings lightly, a soft moan and purrs escaping her almost immediately. "What were you saying?"

She tried to answer, but it only came out as another soft moan and purrs.


	4. Chapter 4

I have another one for y'all! Sorry it took so long but, yeah. Enjoy!

 _ **Shout Outs!:**_

 **Guest**

 **Fluffy stuff at end I love the fluffyness :)**

 **P.S sorry about all of these reviews but sometimes I forget to write Things alright by**

 **P.P.S ur one of my top ten fav aouthors**

Yes, fluff! it's alright, thanks!

 **Aloris**

Yup, plenty of ideas, just a process of when and were to put them :)

 **Novashifter15**

Haha, yeah. it has been a while. Well, he's been healing for a couple weeks now so i think he'd be better

 **Icy's last breath**

Yup, her kryptonite

 **Cashagon**

Chap 1. Haha! That's great ;)  
Chap 2. Yes. Yeah, she'll start breaking out of it soon...in a way, for a bit. It's complicated. ;)  
Chap 3. :D Minicons...but that might not be all...and that might not have been what was in _that_ room... :)  
For a while he'll look like he did in TFP. I've watched most of the show because, well i needed to for this, merp. No, Jazz and any character not in TFP will look like their G1 appearances. i should make a note of that, haha. They just made everyone big and bulky in RiD, it bugged me.

 **iceblossom98**

Give you a heart attack, she gives me a heart attack. you know, i think she'd be ok giving Jazz a heart attack.

* * *

 **Aliena directed a Vehicon on where to place a premade wall when bot walked over, "Prime? Aliena Prime?"**

She sighed and waved, walking over to him, "Yeah."

He pointed over his shoulder, "Optimus wants ya fer one thin' or another."

"Oh great…oh please let it _not_ be new bots…" She sighed but left.

Optimus was standing in the center of several houses, none of them currently finished, with several other bots. He turned to her with a smile, "Aliena, there are some bots I want you to meet."

She raised a brow and only looked at him inquisitively.

Optimus gestured to the bots gathered, "Aliena, these the Aerialbots, returning seekers."

She blinked, shocked, looking between them and Optimus. "Ok, uh, cool…"

A white and gray Aerialbot stepped forward and offered a servo, "Name's Silverbolt. Optimus says your carrier and sire left just before the war."

She nodded.

He smiled, "Can't say I blame them, my sire packed my brothers and I up shortly after it started."

She looked at Optimus, still not fully what this had to do with her in particular—past that they were the same build, species, type? Whatever.

Optimus saw her confusion and said, "We have several shelters built, but none suitable for seekers. I want you and the Aerialbots to work on some. At the same time they can fill you in on much of our history and customs."

Aliena nodded, slightly reluctant to see him leave.

Silverbolt smiled, "So, where do we begin?"

*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*

That night Aliena sat in her berthroom with her knees to her chest, helm resting against the wall. She peeked an optic open when she heard the door swish open. Optimus walked in and sat next to her, "Everything go alright."

She nodded, "It went fine…setting the foundation took a little longer because they all wanted to be together but…I can understand wanting to keep family close…"

"I didn't mean the building, though I am glad to hear that it is going well."

She shrugged.

Optimus sighed, "I'm trying to help, the Aerialbots will be far more understanding and accepting of _you_ than many of the others have, at least off the bat as the saying is."

Aliena smiled a bit at the joke. "I know, and I'm sorry I've been so hard on it also it's just…" She laughed a bit, "I wasn't the people person with my own kind…frankly Cybertronians terrify me just as much as humans. And then it doesn't help that I'm a seeker and they're all hesitant, which I understand."

"Just give them time and work with the other seekers." He vented a bit before adding, "I am putting them under your command."

"What? Optimus, hold on-" Aliena started.

Optimus put a servo on her shoulder, stopping her, "You are a leader now, no matter what you are people will see you that way. I'm not asking you much, but lead your own kind. While the Aerialbots left before they were forced to join the Decepticons, there will be a rift between them and others for some time. Learning with them will the best way for you to start."

She sighed and her shoulders fell and said quietly. "I never wanted this…after I realized I couldn't go home, I just wanted to give my brother something stable, and then—I just wanted to be with you. I never wanted any of this, never, not even—not even in my birth dimension. I don't mind life throwing curveballs, by this point I've learned to go with them…but why this? Optimus, why?"

He held her close, "I could hardly begin to guess."

Aliena rested her helm on his chest as she fell into recharge.

*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*

Days blurred into weeks, Iacon was being rebuilt at a constant rate—most of the housing sector done. After a few tense days the Aerialbots and Aliena began to get along more, actual conversations were held. Aliena, Silverbolt and Skydive were currently on patrol. Silverbolt asked, "So what's the planet like that you grew up on, Earth was it?"

"Pretty nice, depending on where on the planet you were."

Skydive said, with some disgust in his voice, "Oh, it wasn't one of those multiple climate planets was it?"

"Yeah, it was."

Silverbolt laughed, "Skydive here had a bad experience with a planet like that once, hasn't let it go since."

Skydive visibly shuddered, "One minute you got liquid leaking down and into you the next you're freezing your axels off."

Silverbolt cut in, "I'm getting a reading of some kind, I can't make out what it is at this distance."

Aliena checked her scanners, "Hm…I'm not picking anything up, but we'll check it out anyway."

"I was equipped with extra scanning capacities."

"And he uses it to be a nanny-bot most of the time." Aliena could almost see Skydive rolling his optics.

As they flew down and landed Silverbolt frowned, "It just had to be Tyger Pax."

"What happened at Tyger Pax? Besides the obvious." She asked.

Both Silverbolt and Skydive stopped for a moment before Skydive answered, "Tyger Pax was one of Megatron's first bombings…this is where we used to live."

She felt sorry for them but didn't quite understand what they were getting at.

Silverbolt finished, "Our carrier was offlined here."

Her optics widened slightly, "I-I'm sorry." There was a beat before she said, "Let's hurry up and find whatever it was that you saw. No need to dilly-dally."

Truth be told, Tyger Pax was starting to give her the creeps. She could almost hear ghostly children laughing and a bustling city. She shook her head slightly and followed Silverbolt down a broken and barely recognizable street.

He stopped and frowned, looking at a screen on his arm. "I don't understand, we're supposed there…are we on top of it?"

Aliena looked down, "Did Tyger Pax have subways?"

Both bots blinked at her. "Subways?" Skydive asked.

"Uh, underground transportation."

Skydive looked at Silverbolt who was looking up, "I think so, it had one or two at least."

Aliena nodded, "Let's start with those."

"This way." Silverbolt waved, "I still remember where the entrance was at."

They walked for a bit until they came to a larger structure, mostly collapsed. Silverbolt nodded, "Well, this was it. We might be able to get in once the rubble is removed from the doorway."

Aliena looked up and asked, "Can you guys fly while not in your alt mode?"

Both shook their heads.

"Alright, I'll head up and in and start clearing rubble away from the inside."

Her foot thrusters activated and she was up and over the non-existent roof in moments. The inside was no better than the outside, the whole place looked ready to fall apart and the slightest movement. She frowned before helping to clear the door. A moment later all three were inside.

They continued in, optics becoming the only source of light once they were in the descending hallways. Aliena suddenly asked, "I should've said something earlier, but is there another way out in case this place collapses?"

Silverbolt shook his helm, "If you're not counting the tunnels, then no."

"And I'm pretty sure most of those are collapsed." Skydive added.

"Wonderful." Aliena said dryly.

Silverbolt laughed slightly, "Step lightly."

Aliena nodded, "Duly done."

As they continued down and through several tunnels Silverbolt stopped, "Whatever it is, is just behind this wall."

Aliena frowned, thinking, "Can we get a com signal out?"

Skydive tried to com someone and shook his head, "The rubble above is probably messing with the signal too much."

She vented, not sure what to do.

Silverbolt put a servo on her shoulder, "If it's Starscream we're looking for, three seekers can easily overpower him."

Aliena looked at him, worry in her optics, "It's not Starscream I'm worried about…Shockwave is still lose too…"

Skydive frowned, "He, could be more of a problem."

She nodded and hummed in agreement. "Alright, we'll just be careful. Is there a doorway here or…?"

They felt along the wall for a moment when a section of the wall broke off and slid open. Silverbolt smiled, "Found the lever."

Aliena nodded, spark racing and almost in her throat—or whatever the Cybertronian equivalent was—and activated her blasters before stepping into the room.

Lights blinked from a dozen consoles and screens while tools—some of obvious Decepticon decent—laid on various tables and work benches. A few empty and neatly stacked Energon cubes sat in a corner.

"Everything's still active." Skydive said, moving over to a console.

Silverbolt started typing at another, "Whoever was here left in a hurry…I'm not picking up the same signal anymore, but something's still here."

Aliena's tank churned as she walked to a console and tapped a button. The screen instantly changed to a log of some kind she guessed. It took her a bit but she started to translate some of what was on the screen and her spark stopped. "No."

Silverbolt's helm shot up, "What is it?"

"The CNA make up."

"Cyber Nucleic Acid?" He asked.

She nodded, "Do you have _anything_ to down load this on?"

He looked confused, "No, why?"

"Because-" She stopped as the screen suddenly went black along with all the other computers and a console exploded. "Scrap!" A door lay to their left and she grabbed Silverbolt's servo and yelled at Skydive, "The door!"

They ran through the door and she fired the console on the door, closing it behind them. The room shook and the door bowed in quite a bit but remained intact. Aliena sighed in relief as she pushed herself off the pile they had formed in the escape and dive through the door.

She instantly went to the door and tried to open it, but like she expected it remained closed. Skydive onlining his blasters made her turned, "This just got worse."

The room was dimly lit, no doubt on a backup generator, but the two tanks were clearly visible.

"Predacons." Silverbolt growled. "Shockwave's making more Predacons."

Skydive pointed, "There's another door, probably another way out."

Silverbolt grabbed for a few cubes of Energon lying near the tanks and handed it to Skydive, "Set one of these next to the console, we can blow it as we leave."

Aliena grabbed his servo and hissed, "No! Don't you dare."

He frowned, confused, "What, why not? If Shockwave's making more of these things to fight us then-"

"He doesn't have them right now."

"But they're beasts, I've read what just one did under Megatron's control."

"Did you read what they did for _Cybertron_?"

He paused and nodded, "But we can't just let them go, we're going to have to leave them here and Shockwave will just get them back."

Skydive called over, "Actually, they can be let out of the growth chambers at any time. They're fully grown."

Aliena stood with a hard look at the tanks. "This is _my_ patrol, I'll take care of whatever happens, but I'm _not_ leaving them here."

She walked over to the console and hit the release switch.

Silverbolt stared at her, "You're insane."

She shrugged, "Be that as it may, we already killed a half-dozen of them when they were the equivalent of sparklings. I'm not doing that again."

As the containers opened Skydive asked, bouncing from peed to peed in nervousness. "We're scrambling to get everything in order for new bots, not to mention repairing the _entire_ planet—how do you propose we take care of them?"

She vented again, "Just leave that to me, I'll figure it out."

The tanks opened and the two Predacons stepped/fell out, optics wide. _Almost like a child's_. They growled slightly but not in a malicious way.

Silverbolt stood, very tense, and pointed to the open door, "I'll, just go scout—for a way out."

Skydive watched his brother leave, he obviously looked like he wanted to follow him but stayed put, not wanting to leave Aliena alone either…even if this was her terrible idea.

Aliena swallowed thickly and took a cautious step towards the Griffin and bird-like Predacons. Both would be easily taller than she was when at full height, but at the moment they were laying down—no doubt disoriented. She breathed to calm her spark and approached them with her servos out in an open and non-threatening manner. "Hey, uh, I think you can understand me an-and if you can, we need to go."

The Griffin one growled, optics opening and focusing on her—face unreadable.

She knelt down and spoke calmly, though she felt like her entire being was shaking in terror, "I want to help, but if we don't leave soon Shockwave will come back and, well it won't end well for any of us."

The bird-like Predacon locked optics with her and narrowed his own before squawking and the Griffin turned to it, understanding in its optics.

Skydive frowned and said quietly, "Weird, I think they share some kind of bond. Like a sibling bond."

Aliena shrugged slightly, "They might have formed one while they were in the growth tanks if they were connected in some way."

He nodded when Silverbolt came back in, eyeing the two Predacons warily, "I found a way back into the tunnels but there's also someone coming back."

"No doubt it's Shockwave." Skydive said.

Aliena nodded towards the door, "Ok, let's go."

They headed out and the scraping of claws on the floor grabbed their attention, the Predacons were standing a bit unsteadily. A moment later they started following them and Silverbolt again took the lead. They wander the halls for several minutes before they came to a dead end, rubble blocking their path. Aliena and Silverbolt inspected the pile while Skydive wandered off a bit, the Predacons following him.

Silverbolt turned to her and shook his head, "Its too thick, we couldn't move or blast our way out."

She nodded, "There gotta be an intersecting tunnel somewhere that-"

"Silverbolt, Aliena!" Skydive yelled, "Got something."

They hurried back down the tunnel and found Skydive with the Predacons moving a bit of rubble to a new tunnel. Silverbolt grinned, "There's our way out."

The tunnel carried on for several miles until they finally came across another depo. Exiting the building nothing looked familiar to her. Aliena turned to Silverbolt and Skydive, "Any of this familiar?"

They shook their helms, Skydive answering, "We never left Tyger Pax until our ship left."

She sighed, "Glorious. Hm…Silverbolt, think you can find your way back to Iacon?"

He laughed, "Easily."

She nodded, "Ok, then you and Skydive head back and find Ultra Magnus, take him to the laboratory and see if anything survived or is still there."

He frowned, "And what are you going to do?"

She nodded towards the Predacons, "I've gotta find some place for them."

"I was afraid of that."

Aliena smiled, "I'll be fine, but please don't tell Ultra Magnus the Predacons until _after_ you get to the depo."

They nodded and she watched them until they were out of sight then looked over at the Predacons before coming the Nemesis. * _Aliena? Are you alright?_ *

* _I'm fine Arcee, can you Bridge Optimus over to my coordinates?_ *

There was a pause before, * _Sure, is everything alright? Did you find something?_ *

She again looked at the Predacons, * _That's one way of putting it. Silverbolt and Skydive should be returning shortly, they can tell you._ *

* _It'll be a minute until I can get ahold of Optimus._ *

* _Alright_.*

The Predacons watched her with curious optics, almost like a child's. She laughed, _they essentially are children_. A minute later a Ground Bridge opened and Optimus walked through, looking slightly confused. "Aliena? Is something wrong?"

She shook her head and made a calming gesture, "Nooo…uh, I need you to watch someone for a bit."

His brow creased as he came closer and noticed the Predacons behind Aliena. Even more confused he looked at her and asked in a steady voice, "What happened?"

She fiddled with her digits while she explained, "We found one of Shockwave's labs and they were there, fully matured. Silverbolt said that Shockwave was coming back and, well, I couldn't just leave them there."

He frowned slightly, "What are you planning to do? We don't even know where the other three are."

She frowned momentarily, servos kept moving as she tried to explain, "Uh, yeah, thing is, is that I think I know where one of them is…"

"Predaking is still at Darkmount, isn't he?" It wasn't so much a question as it was a statement of realization.

She nodded, "I think so…though I haven't been able to check recently."

Something clicked and his optics widened slightly, "He was hurt, wasn't he? That's why you were gone for several hours for the past few weeks."

She sighed, saddened at the memory, "Yeah. He was badly wounded, probably would've died if I hadn't found him…the other two were already dead." She looked up at his optics which were asking a silent question, "I don't really know how. Predaking said they were chasing Starscream when he stepped on a trigger. Considering what Jazz activated and how terrible that room and hallway looked, I'm not sure how Starscream survived, but I couldn't find any signs of him in the room.

Could you watch them? Until I find Predaking? I know he'll take care of them, he said it himself that he just wants to be left alone by bots and he looked devastated at the other two's death."

Optimus nodded and set a servo on her shoulder, "I will watch them." A small smile on his lips, "Though I wish you had told me this sooner."

She looked down again, "I'm sorry, I just, I just didn't know how…"

He smiled again and she transformed.

*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*

It wasn't too far to Darkmount, little less than half an hour. Aliena landed in the small entrance near the desecrated room and wandered down the hallway a bit, deeper into Darkmount. "Predaking? Predaking?"

She followed the hallway in and around, seeing a deep scrape in the floor every once in a while, until she reached a large flight bay. She sighed, defeated, _he must have used this to fly out of here_ …Aliena looked up and out across the landscape and demolished city, lips pressed together in thought.

"Looking for me?" A deep voice said from behind her.

She whirled around to see Predaking standing there, looking fully healed. "You're still here!" Was the first thing that came to her mind.

He smiled, "I saw you flying in this direction."

Aliena smiled, "I'm glad you did, I need your help."

He frowned slightly, "With what may I ask?"

She couldn't help the small smile that crept onto her face as she answered, "I was on patrol when we found one of Shockwave's labs."

Predaking growled lowly at his name, "What of him?"

Aliena shook her head, "Not him, while we were there, we found other Predacons."

His face remained blank for a moment as he processed the information, "Where are they?" He asked quickly.

"They're with Optimus for the moment." Predaking frowned and she quickly added, "I-I didn't know if you would still be here and I don't know if they can fully understand me yet…it was the only option I saw at the time. But he, their waiting for you. I came to take you to them."

Predaking nodded, "Then show me to them."

Aliena smiled and transformed, Predaking transforming also and flying after her. It was a slightly slower flight back—slightly. She could see Optimus in the distance, still in the same spot she'd left him with the two other Predacons. Predaking suddenly shot passed her in a dive and landed near the Predacons.

She landed next to Optimus and smiled, he said, "I see that you found him."

She nodded with a hum. "I'm glad I did."

Optimus smiled and pulled her into a gentle side hug, "You did well."

Aliena laughed, "Really? I thought I dang near screwed everything up."

Optimus shook his helm, "Not in the slightest."

Predaking transformed and walked over to the pair and nodded his helm. "Thank you Aliena, now I'm truly not alone anymore."

She smiled and nodded before her face darkened slightly, "Shockwave probably has more labs out there…Knockout said he had hundreds scattered throughout Cybertron. It wouldn't surprise me if he's cloning more Predacons."

Predaking laid a clawed servo on her shoulder and said calmly, "Then I trust that you will find them and bring them to me."

Aliena's optics widened slightly and looked over at Optimus who simply looked at her before she turned back to Predaking and nodded, "I promise that if I find any more I'll bring them to you."

He nodded, "Thank you."

With that, Predaking transformed and roared as he too off, the other two Predacons following him.

* * *

Haha, now i can get on to something I've been wanting to for a while, i think the story's matured enough.

Ok, and i need to say this, all characters that weren't in TFP will look like the way they did in G1 unless otherwise noted, even if they were in RiD, they will either be TFP or G1. Sorry, pet peeve, but that's the way i'll be describing them.

 **ALSO!**! **IMPORTANT!  
** I will be writing the first chapter of When Worlds Collide: Worlds Nexus next. So be on the look out for it! Have a great week!


	5. Chapter 5

Hey y'all. Sorry it's been so long since i updated, my mom had hip surgery so I've been sitting with her a lot and watching a lot of NCIS, it's addicting. so when i do manage to pry myself away to write this i can only think of who killed petty officer lieutenant Briant and why its the wife, it's the wife, always suspect the wife! Unless the wife's the victim, then suspect the husband. and now i also have all of Gibb's rules stuck in my head, like R9 and R44-R44 is bad, really bad. But enough about me, you came to read the story, so i'll let you go. hope you enjoy...

 **ALSO** , I've posted the first chapter of When Worlds Collide: Worlds Nexus. It's a Transformers and Avengers crossover for ya nobies...i also heard from a little birdie that Loki's going to play a part so hilarity will ensue. i suggest you read ;)

 _ **Shout Outs!:**_

 **Guest**

 **Please update the new gargoyles chapter I'm dying know when it update**

It'll be a while but i'll get to it eventually, i promise.

 **Aloris**

Nah, it's fine. Haha, that's cool, i just wanted to make sure that if they were someone else that i wasn't forgetting them ;) Let's see, you can have Silas, yes...opps, i forget, there's already a line... XD Thanks, can't wait to hear from you again!

 **NovaShifter15**

Yes! I couldn't help but give him more Predacons because well, i felt really guilty about making him the lone survivor again. That's great! I'll have another chapter out soon!

 **Cutie Kyuubi**

Yeah, oh gosh, bayverse, gives me the willies thinking about the looks *shivers*

 **Icy's last breath**

Yes! Yes she does! Progress!

 **Cashagon**

I always want to laugh when people say that the G1 looks big and bulky, i just snicker and point to RiD.  
Yes, i thought the Aerialbots would be a good transition for her into a leadership position. also, i really like them and was sad when they weren't in either series.  
More Predacon fluff soon

 **BraveSeeker3**

The best one! sorry Bee team, no where near the best.

* * *

 **Aliena let go of the side of a large metal structure.** Ratchet smiled, "The Space Bridge is officially moved."

Optimus smiled, "Thank you old friend. With the Nemesis being inoperable it is best to reuse its resources."

Ratchet smiled, "I'm rather happy to see it go…to many unpleasant memories."

Aliena shuddered, "At least you haven't had to live in it."

Ratchet nodded understandingly before asking, "When are you planning to return? The children are becoming antsy, especially Jayce."

Aliena frowned and looked down, "Soon I hope."

Optimus nodded, "I believe some time off would be good for everyone." Aliena grinned before he continued, "But I have patrol at the moment, would you like to join me Aliena?"

"I'd love to." She grinned.

Optimus turned to Ratchet, "Have a safe trip back to Earth, old friend."

Ratchet nodded, a fond smile gracing him, "I expect to see you _both_ soon."

Optimus transformed and Aliena followed suit. They drove/flew for a while, keeping to the edge of the Sea of Rust. It looked more alive, Aliena noted, not quite so rusted and dead as it had looked. Optimus transformed and she landed near him on the edge of a precipice just outside Kaon. She stood next to him and hummed contently as he wrapped an arm around her. "Iacon is almost rebuilt, I never thought I'd see it bright again."

Aliena smiled and laughed quietly, "Preceptor is acting like Christmas came early with the Hall of Records' restoration."

Optimus grinned, "Yes, I didn't expect most of the records to still be there and functioning."

Aliena picked up on the bit of sadness in his voice, "Don't tell me you're going to get jealous of him?"

Optimus blinked down at her, "No, though I do wish I could spend more time there."

She grinned, "Soon hopefully."

He hummed in agreement before a movement deep in the Sea of Rust caught his optic. Aliena sensed his movement and turned to look, something large—but smaller than a Predacon—was taking off. He frowned, "It seems as though Starscream might finally have revealed himself."

"I'll try and catch up to him."

Optimus nodded, "I will follow below."

She transformed and shot off for the rough Decepticon. She made faster time than Optimus but to her surprise Starscream wasn't pulling away or pushing his speed to escape, and it was impossible that, by this point, he didn't know who was following him. She commed Optimus, "Are you, seeing this?"

"Indeed, proceed with caution, it may be a trap. I will have a com ready to call for back up."

She hummed in agreement and closed the distance between her and Starscream, only to mentally freeze when he pulled up and shot over her—heading towards Optimus. Mentally berating herself she turned sharply and commed Optimus, "It's not Starscream."

Optimus' normal baritone voice answered her, "I know."

He transformed in front of the landed seeker and Aliena transformed a fair distance behind him, blasters ready and tanks churning dangerously.

"Optimus, I wondered how long it would take you to start patrols this far out."

"What do you want, Megatron? You have disbanded the Decepticons…?"

Megatron nodded, "Yes." He turned and nodded at Aliena with a slight smile, "Jemina."

She fought herself not to shake and tensed her whole body.

"She is Aliena Prime now." Optimus corrected, a bit of harshness in his voice. Megatron blinked in slight surprise but said nothing, Optimus continued, "You obviously wanted our attention, what is it?"

Megatron laughed, "Always to the point, you haven't changed a bit Optimus." Optimus said nothing, only gave him a cold look. Megatron sighed slightly, "I have heard that you are offering returning Decepticons the chance to live peacefully on the revived Cybertron."

Optimus nodded, Aliena's optics widening slightly at the hint of where he was going with the thought. "You have heard right."

Megatron looked down, a pained look in his face, before he looked up again. "I have realized what I was truly fighting for, and how much I want _nothing_ to do with it. To you, and all of Cybertron, and all of the sparks extinguished and mislead, I deeply apologize. I understand if you cannot accept one such as myself back but I does not hurt to ask."

Optimus nodded, in deep thought, while Aliena swallowed thickly—desperately fighting to just stand still and not run away. "If I extended a welcome to Decepticons, it will be for _all_ Decepticons, though I cannot guarantee your reception."

Megatron nodded, "Thank you Optimus, I understand. But I have a request."

Optimus' optic ridge quirked at the comment, "Yes?"

"Megatron is dead, your scout saw to that and he will not be revived."

Optimus nodded, understanding, "You wish to have a new name."

He nodded, "I am Galvatron."

Optimus extended a servo with a smile, "Then welcome home, Galvatron."

He returned the smile and clasped his servo, "It is good to return." He turned to Aliena and said rather suddenly, "I believe I also need to offer you a deep apology for my actions, they were uncalled for."

She nodded mutely, barely managing to deactivate her blasters. She took a hesitant step back and said, "I think I'll return to Iacon now…Silverbolt and Fireflight promised to show me some moves…"

As fast as Cybertronian possible, maybe then some, she transformed and shot away—ripping through the sky back to Iacon.

Optimus turned to Galvatron, "We should return and have Knockout examine you, I don't think you've had any treatment since the battle?"

Galvatron shook his helm no, "Knockout is the medic? Where is Ratchet?"

Optimus smiled, "Back on Earth."

Galvatron looked at him with surprised optics and muttered, "He actually wanted to stay on _that_ planet?"

Optimus shook his helm and transformed, Galvatron following suit and keeping a slow pace as they headed back to Iacon.

*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*

Their first stop was the med bay were some loud protesting was coming from, no surprise. However, it did surprise Optimus slightly that it was Bulkhead's protesting. "Come on Knockout! I just need a patch job! Stop messing with the paint!"

"But it looks _awful_ like this!" Knockout complained.

Bulkhead growled lowly, "It's fine, I just needed to get the leaking to stop."

"Come on, just let me-"

"No! Arcee! Help me!"

"Watch the finish!"

Optimus and Galvatron shared a look as they waited and listened outside.

Arcee snickered, "It does look pretty bad."

"When do I care about looks?! I gotta get the support beams and wall frames set up and done by night so we can get the city looking like normal again." There was a shuffling of tools and peeds and Bulkhead cried out, "It's fine! Completely functional! Leave it alone!"

Knockout gave a strangled grumble as Bulkhead marched out of the room then stopped dead in his tracks, optics wider than if he had seen a ghost. Arcee followed him out and instantly snarled, blasters aimed. Knockout hear their whine as they charged and ran out, only to crash into Bulkhead from pure shock.

"M-M-Megatron! You're, you-!"

Galvatron looked at him flatly, "I am now Galvatron and I have not come to harm anyone." He finished looking at Arcee who looked more than skeptical.

Knockout was the first to recover, nodding, "Well, this is, quite the shock…"

Galvatron followed him into the med bay, Arcee and Bulkhead leaving to finish the building and Optimus trailing the two former Decepticons inside. Knockout was scanning Galvatron and frowning slightly as he inspected some worse looking areas. As he inspected the scanner he started talking just so things weren't quite so awkward. "So…I take it J-Aliena accompanied you Optimus."

"Yes." Optimus answered the more statement than question. "Why?"

Knockout frowned slightly, "I was supposed to examine her today."

Optimus frowned, "I thought you had examined her?"

Knockout bobbed his helm in a so-so fashion, "When she was hurt and over extended her abilities. I don't have any kind of standard since she became a Prime."

Optimus nodded understandingly before he frowned slightly, but not at Knockout, "You haven't completed her examination yet?"

"Nope." He answered simply, "She kept pushing it off, insisting that I focus on the returnee's. I finally put my peed down and told her to come today."

Optimus laughed quietly and Galvatron blinked and Knockout scowled, "You wouldn't happen to know where she's at now, would you?" He finished, almost glaring at the present Prime.

Optimus shook his, "Probably sparing with the Aerialbots."

Knockout growled, "Figures, how does Ratchet do it?" He mumbled to himself.

"He had a more confined space to pin her." Optimus answered simply.

Knockout handed Galvatron, who looked slightly confused, an Energon cube, "Your Energon levels are low, but most of your wounds have already healed. I would suggest getting rid of the sea muck from your armor."

Galvatron nodded, contently sipping from the cube.

Knockout turned to Optimus, "If you want her to have at least a basic examination so in case anything, Primus forbid, comes up then I'd suggest you help in this endeavor."

Optimus sighed and shook his helm, "Knowing her, it probably will."

Knockout hummed.

"Come to the Hall of Records tonight, I'll make sure she's there."

Knockout scoffed slightly, "Knowing her, one look at me with a scanner and she'll become Mirage and disappear." Knockout began scraping off some of the muck on Galvatron, the sight of it driving him insane.

Optimus watched Knockout work and Galvatron asked Optimus with a slight smirk, "Now that the people are returning, are you planning to settle down?"

The tool Knockout had been using slipped made a streak in Galvatron's armor, his face a cross between horror and utter amusement, he chose to express the latter as he burst out laughing.

Galvatron looked at the medic with confusion then up at Optimus who now found the roof to be very interesting… _how to tell him…_ "Did I miss something?" There was a beat before he smiled suddenly, "There already is someone. My, my Optimus. Moving rather quickly aren't you? None of these femes have been here for _that_ long bar Arcee, and I _know_ she isn't quite your type."

Optimus swallowed thickly, choosing to evade to topic for the moment, "She is quite special…what do you plan to do now that you have returned?"

Galvatron smirked, "Misdirection Optimus, you always were better at that than lying. Though still not great. So, who is the lucky feme?"

Knockout finally managed to control his laughter enough to resume working, "Oh Primus, please have someone record his reaction."

Galvatron turned his helm slightly, suspicion aroused, "So it is someone I know, or knew. Now this _is_ interesting. Who could it be?"

Optimus turned, "I believe I should find Aliena for her examination."

Knockout hit the switch to close and lock the door, "Oh no you don't, not until you tell him. Because if it's anyone but you who does it she'll probably kill them and I'd rather not have to repair even more bots. Primus knows I get plenty of Vehicons in here every day."

Optimus weighed his words and nodded, "You're probably right."

Galvatron looked rather pleased as he took another sip from the cube, "I don't recall knowing that many femmes that you knew, especially those that had that kind of fight. Since it's not Arcee and defiantly not Chromia or Firestar…you leave quite the conundrum."

Knockout grinned and coughed "Prime" to which Optimus glared.

Galvatron frowned, not understanding, and took another sip.

Optimus sighed and finally relented, "You already met her," Galvatron smirked while he drank, "She's Aliena Prime-" Galvatron began to choke on his Energon as Optimus continued, "and she is already my Sparkmate."

Galvatron completely lost it and spit out some of the Energon while he finished choking from the shock. "I'm sorry, did you say that you were a Sparkmate with a fleshling human?! A Techno-Organic?!"

Optimus nodded, "Yes, we bonded shortly after, she…escaped the Nemesis from the Damocles incident."

Galvatron's face lost some harshness but the shock still remained. After some time he finally spoke, "And I thought you were predictable."

Optimus smirked slightly.

Knockout cleared his throat slightly and said, "I think most of that has to do with Aliena, she _has_ taught him some…not so Prime like things."

Galvatron rubbed his helm, "Out of _all_ the femmes on Cybertron and off…you had to choose the _one_ that was like Elita One."

* * *

 **Aliena** walked down the slightly busy streets. The Aerialbots were busy repairing houses and she needed to think. Absentmindedly, she wandered through the city until she reached the edge, touching the Sea of Rust. Looking around she saw that this section of the city hadn't been restored yet. Sighing, she flew up to the top of a building and sat down, if she looked out into the heart of the Sea she could see the remains of the Omega Lock and a pang of sadness hit her—reminding her of her lost chance.

Pulling her knees closer she buried her helm in them. She couldn't tell if she wished that Mega-no, Galvatron had been Starscream or not. Turmoil stirred inside her. Seeing him was like seeing Silas. Her servo gripped her side that was scared, taking deep intakes.

"Hey, thought you might be up here."

She jumped and turned to see Bee standing behind her. "Uh! Hi."

He smiled and sat down next to her, "So, I heard about what happened. How are you doing?"

She shrugged, "Alright I think. I just, need to think…how are _you_ doing with it."

He shrugged, "Shocked, but I think I'm fine with it. Nervous though."

She hummed and nodded.

Bee turned to her, "So why _are_ you up here?"

"Just need space." She growled quietly and buried her helm in her knees again. "This is stupid, I shouldn't be running but…he terrifies me."

Bee nodded, "He terrifies a lot of bots."

Aliena shook her head, "That not what I mean Bee. It's like, well, I'm a Prime now—as much as I think I hate it—and I just _can't_ do things like this. Optimus is going to need me to give him a chance so others will and it just. Well he's not like the other Decepticons! I'm still wary around Knockout but, well, he never _actually_ hurt me. And I don't really know the others that are returning, at all, so to me having Decepticon is just kind of like a name. And while I do tend to be more cautious around them, I _can_ try to at least be courteous to them…I just don't know if I can with him."

Bee sighed and placed a servo on her shoulder, "I think a lot of bots are going to have troubles with that."

"At least _they_ can escape it."

Bee flinched slightly but sighed sadly, "Yeah, they can."

"I just, I need some time to process it."

Bee smiled and stood, holding a servo out for her, "Well, we can start by having some fun. I heard that a race track's been built, the first race on Cybertron in centuries is about to start. Wanna come?"

She smiled and took his servo, grateful for the momentary distraction. "Sure, why not."

* * *

So, how many of you were expecting that? this will be an, interesting procession from here on out...leave your thoughts so we can talk! Till next time, which is hopefully sooner ;)


	6. Chapter 6

Hey, so sorry this isn't up when i said/hoped it would be but i'm planning a shorter chapter, kinda like a Christmas special, which is going to be shorter and _will_ be out in the next few days. Hope you enjoy this and see y'all soon!

 _ **Shout Outs!:**_

 **Guest**

 **Please update soon!**

Will do! ;)

 **NovaShifter15**

Thanks, wish it could be faster. that will be soon, after the next chapter in this! Hehehehe.

 **Aloris2.0 the great**

Thanks, i was too.

* * *

 **Aliena laid down on the berth in their new home, she sighed gratefully, her day having been far too long.** Optimus followed her in and laid next to her, "Are you alright?"

She shook her head, "Not really, but there's nothing you can do about it."

He sighed, "Its Galvatron, isn't it?"

She nodded, "I just, I don't know how I'm going to accept him, _at all_. I know you need me too, I know Cybertron does too but…uh…I sound like a broken record today."

Optimus smiled sadly and held her close, "It is understandable, _I_ understand. Change of such magnitude cannot occur spontaneously but you are at least _trying_." There were a few moments of silence between them before he spoke again, "I told him that we were Sparkmates."

Her optics widened slightly but didn't react otherwise, "Oh? How did _that_ go?"

Optimus laughed, "I think I have finally confused him."

She laughed and turned, kissing him, "Well, if that was your goal, congrats."

He returned it before kissing the top of her helm. "For the next few solar cycles at least I will keep Galvatron near me, so you need not worry for a bit."

She sighed, "Thank you Optimus. I just need some time to gather myself."

"I figured." She tucked her helm into his neck, venting quietly. "Ultra Magnus has patrol in the Kalis, it would be best if you go with him."

Aliena picked up her helm slightly, worry dancing in her optics, "Why, what's wrong?"

He began to stroke her wings, "Nothing is wrong, but some of the old political leaders returned today."

She blinked and gently pushed his servo away, "Is there something wrong with that? I mean, I can understand if there's some resentment but…?"

Optimus shook his helm as he answered, a slight strain on his voice, "No, but their ideas still remain intact even though they know that Cybertron will not follow them anymore. I'm afraid they are very persistent to meet you. And I know from experience that they can be quite nerve racking as you would say."

She nodded, "Ah."

"And as of right now we both have other things that need to be focused on, not fending off their old ideas." Aliena nodded tiredly, optics drifting closed.

Optimus watched her nod off to recharge, smiling gently and resting his helm by hers.

* * *

 **Aliena** flew next to Ultra Magnus as they patrolled, Knockout cruising on the other side of him. An earlier patrol by the Aerialbots had spotted what could be a lab. Aliena landed and transformed, blaster armed as the two mechs drew near. She cautiously entered the building, Ultra Magnus following with Knockout behind him. Knockout asked, slightly trembling, "Why am _I_ here again?"

Aliena nodded towards the lone door at the end of the room and carefully crept towards it, answering Knockout quietly, "Because, last time we found a lab and accessed the computers, they blew up. Maybe they won't do that if a Decepticon, or former Decepticon activates them."

Knockout pouted, "I hate you, this could ruin my finish if this doesn't work."

Aliena rolled her optics, "Consider it payback for turning Optimus against me."

" _That_ was your own fault for ditching your exam."

She shrugged, "You think I'm going to give you the break I never gave Ratchet?"

Knockout growled, "One can always hope."

Aliena smirked and shook her helm before her face fell again as Ultra Magnus rounded on the door, kicking it open. They all held their breath as they entered. The room was black when they entered but immediately lit up revealing what they thought it was, a lab.

"Hmm." Knockout hummed, quite interested as he wandered over to the console. He activated it and started shifting through its files.

Aliena looked around the room, which was empty bar the consoles and two doors. She nodded for Ultra Magnus to take the right and she moved left. Entering the room she was surprised to find nothing more than a few supplies, "A storage closet."

Sifting through some of the crates and boxes, hoping to something of interest, turned out nothing. A few precision tools for something akin to surgery and some extra wires and what could be circuit boards for the consoles but nothing else.

"Aliena Prime." Ultra Magnus called.

She sighed, really wishing he wouldn't be so formal and just call her Aliena. It was hard enough to remember that her name had changed let alone adding on the addition to Prime. Shoot, she called Optimus, Prime sometimes. It threw her off when someone called her that.

"Yeah?" She asked as she walked into the right hand room, optics narrowing instantly.

A tank was empty and open but golden-yellow liquid still remained at the bottom of the tank. Ultra Magnus turned to her, "It appears that there are defiantly more Predacons being made."

Aliena looked at the empty chamber with sadness before a second tank caught her optic. It was closed and filled to the top with the liquid. Curious, she called out to Knockout in the other room, "Knockout, there's an empty tank but it's full of liquid. Do you have any idea what Shockwave was planning?"

He entered the room, pulling up some files on that room's console. "My best guess is that he was planning on starting another clone but left just before he could begin the process."

Ultra Magnus looked at the open and empty tank, "But it appears that he already succeeded making one."

Knockout nodded, "Yes, from his logs I suspect that he left right after he opened its tank."

Aliena leaned over looking at the screen, "Does it say where he's going? Or even what labs he still has in operation or any new labs?"

Knockout shook his helm, "If he kept that information here, it was scrubbed."

She sighed but nodded, "Is there anything else on there?"

Knockout was quiet for a minute as he sifted through the files before he finally answered, "No, nothing except coordinates to a hot spot for bones."

She looked at the coordinates and frowned, mumbling, "Predaking will want to know about this."

Knockout looked at her, "What's did you say?"

"Nothing." She turned, "If there's nothing else here we may as well leave."

Knockout frowned, "No, you said something about Predaking or Preda-something."

Aliena didn't answer him but instead stopped by the open tank, "Is there anything I can use to carry some of this in?" She asked, fingering some of the liquid. "Something like a test tube or the like?"

Ultra Magnus blinked, looking around the room, and Knockout handed her a vile. She scooped some of the liquid inside before capping it and leaving.

* * *

 **A** screen was brightly lit and a lone Autobot stood in the communications room, which was connected with Earth at this present moment. Ratchet squinted at the vile held between Aliena's forefinger thumb. "What are you holding?"

"Was hoping you would come take a look." She not-really answered. "Found it in a tank that once housed a Predacon."

Ratchet's optics grew wide, "You mean the CNA that Shockwave used to create Cybermatter?"

She shrugged, "Probably. You were super interested in it before, I figured that you'd still be."

He nodded, "I am. I'll bridge over tomorrow and take a look."

She smiled, "I'll see if I can drag Optimus back to Earth for a visit then."

"Good, Jayce needs you for a bit."

Her smile fell slightly, "Well then I'll defiantly drag him back, politicians can wait."

His optic ridge raised slightly, "So _they_ finally came back huh?"

She nodded, "Yeah, Optimus is actually making excuses for me to ditch them."

Ratchet laughed, "Depending on who returned, I can fully understand why."

"Yeah," Aliena smiled, "he told me he wasn't too fond of some of them. Unfortunately it's only a matter of time. But thanks Ratchet, I have to go though."

"Oh? Where do you have to go in such a hurry?"

"I, need to talk to a friend about the empty tank, he needs to know."

Ratchet nodded understandingly before the connection ended.

She walked out of the room, vial safely tucked back into her subspace, where she ran into Silverbolt. "Aliena! Optimus is looking for you."

"Oh, why?"

Silverbolt shrugged, "Haven't a clue, but my best guess is that he wants you to meet the new bots."

She sighed but nodded, "Alright. Um, can you tell him that I'll meet up with him in an hour or so…I need to talk with someone else first."

He nodded, "No problem."

"Thanks."

She walked away until the doors swished open to the outside and transformed, looping around Iacon before she set a course for Kaon. On the flight over she laughed quietly to herself. With how much she was constantly flying over to the hated city, she might as well move in, she was probably there almost as often as Iacon. Landing on the large runway on Darkmount, she waited for Predaking—knowing he saw her fly over.

Soon enough, his large for filled her view and a small smile graced her. "Aliena Prime, what are you here for?" He wasn't rude, but he certainly wasn't softly spoken.

She frowned again, "We found another one of Shockwave's labs." He growled lowly but she continued. "There were signs that he cloned another Predacon but when we got there the chamber and lab was empty. My only guess is that the Predacon was fully grown and Shockwave left as soon as he was grown."

Predaking scowled, "So why are you here if you do not have the Predacon? I cannot track him down without a scent, and you do not have his scent."

She sighed, "Because Knockout was able to activate the computers without blowing them up." She paused, hating to tell him this, "He found one of his entries marking a 'hot spot' for Predacon bones."

There was a tense moment between the two before Predaking's demeanor changed from slightly angry to downright furious, servos clenching so hard she heard the metal groan. Predaking hissed between gritted denta, "He is desecrating what little remains of m ancestor's remains?!"

Aliena took an absent minded half step back as she nodded, "That's the most likely option."

"Then I will move and bury them deep so that they will no longer be disturbed by him or Unicron."

She put a servo on his arm, lips tight, "I'm sorry." She whispered before transforming.

The flight back to Iacon was silent for her, her mind and thoughts uncharaterically quite, when she reached her new home she found Optimus waiting outside. Her tanks churned slightly, worried that something had come up. "Is everything ok?" She asked quickly as she transformed.

He frowned, "Nothing is wrong but I'm afraid that you will not appreciate this."

Her spark stopped for a moment, "What is it?"

Optimus stood straight, servos clenched by his sides. "It's time for you to meet the former rulers."

She stiffened and stood straighter, lips pressed in worry, "Why do I need to meet them? They're no longer in charge."

Optimus sighed heavily, "I am unable to lead Cybertron alone and you do not possess the capability at this time to help politically. As thus, they are the best suited to be a _temporary_ counsel until a new counsel can be set up."

She looked at him longingly, "How long will that be?"

"I hope not long but…thing of this matter can take some time."

"Glorious." She sighed.

They walked through the city, building glistening in the sun's light while the ground seemed glow, giving light to the darker corners. However it was still quiet, despite it being something equivalent to mid-day, this being due to the fact that many Cybertronians hadn't returned yet and many more never would. Aliena took in the sights around her as she walked with Optimus, enjoying the peace and tranquility in the momentary break from her new normal crazy.

Optimus turned and smiled slightly at Aliena as she looked around, as if truly seeing for the first time what she had helped rebuild. However, it fell as the Political Hall came into view, tanks churning at what lay ahead of them. They were only three, but they were of course three of the firmest in the old ways. He sighed, why couldn't Halogen or Drivetrain have come instead? _Because Halogen was offlined and no one's heard from Drivetrain since the war apexed_. His thoughts chastised him.

They arrived at the Hall and Aliena pressed into him slightly as they immediately entered the large room. _It looks like a Catholic cathedral rather than a debate chamber_ , Aliena mused. She followed Optimus to a long table and stood next to him, waiting. A minute later a door opened and three, perturbed looking, mechs walked out. They stared at her and she at them for a long minute.

One mech was primarily golden with variations of yellow along with a few red highlights on his servos and joints. He stood about to Optimus' low shoulder plating. The mech to his left was primarily dark orange with brow/tan accents and golden shoulder pads and helm, and what seemed like a small white beard. And the last mech to the far right was the same height as the first and was black and grey with teal accents.

The moment passed and the golden mech spoke, "So, you're the new Prime…you're barely past your last youngling orns."

The grey mech raised an optic ridge at Optimus, "Was it wise to bond with someone so young?"

Optimus scowled, "I'm not _that_ old."

The orange mech sighed, "Excuse their rudeness, Optimus and Aliena Prime. I am Avalon." He gestured to his right at the golden mech, "This is Levitacus and that is Longarm." He finished nodding to the black and grey mech.

Aliena frowned slightly and tried to smile but it looked forced. "Nice to meet you."

Longarm looked at her with a skeptical optic, "Optimus has informed us that you were raised off-world, did your creator or sire ever mention what caste they were from?"

Optimus growled lowly, warningly, at him—at them all, "It does not matter what caste they were from as they no longer exist."

He looked at Optimus with surprising calm, optic ridges raised only slightly as if in amusement. "I meant it as no offence, merely as a question, given that _she_ is our new Prime—I figured we were entitled to know _something_ about her past."

"That is none of your concern." Optimus almost hissed.

Levitacus broke into the beginning argument, "While her past _is_ none of our concern, I do believe what you are doing now is. Along with helping to rebuild Cybertron I presume there is more you do."

They all looked at her expectantly and she choked to say _something_ , "I—lead the, seekers and flyers that have returned."

"She is also the Predacon's representative."

Avalon frowned, "Is it wise to let them roam Cybertron free? They are beasts, if a took a cataclysm to wipe them out-"

"Then you're going to create one to do it again?" Aliena asked harshly, trying to refrain from snapping at them. "Look, I know at least one personally. Just leave him and them alone and there won't be much trouble from his pack."

"So there are more not in his control." Longarm said like he was trying to unravel some complex puzzle or mystery.

Aliena rolled her optics with a sigh, "I think so but we don't know. For goodness sakes, haven't you read the reports? Because it sounded like you did up 'till now."

"We did," Levitacus said calmly, "but we are concerned about the harm that those who are not under this Predaking's control could so to the refugees."

Aliena sighed, "One, they're not refugees anymore, their home and there isn't a war anymore. And two, that's why we're patrolling, so we can hopefully find those that Shockwave has cloned and take them back to Predaking."

Longarm seemed skeptical but Avalon and Levitacus nodded. The doors to the Hall suddenly opened and a very large mech walked in, Aliena almost sighed in relief as the three mechs stiffened with scowls. "Megatron." Longarm growled.

Levitacus frowned distastefully, "I never thought I'd see _you_ in here again."

Galvatron bared his pointed denta a bit before he turned to Optimus, "Ratchet said he was ready." He glared at the high caste mechs and sneered, "If you don't mind, I'll take my leave."

He nodded at Optimus and left.

Avalon looked at Optimus curiously, "What is your medical officer ready for?"

Aliena pointed out the door with both servos, switching between her pointer figure and thumb in her nervousness. "Probably just something I found on the last patrol. No biggie. I'll, just go see him now."

They watched her quickly leave and Levitacus said, slightly confused, "She does not act like a normal Cybertronian….I have yet to hear her speak it either, does she even know it?"

Optimus sighed internally but said calmly, "No, she grew up amongst the humans of Earth. She had no Cybertronian contact until she met my team. It is understandable for her to act differently, and I would not want it otherwise."

Optimus left them in varying amounts of disapproval. He met up Aliena, intercepting her course to the Space Bridge. "Is everything ok?"

He smiled, "Everything is fine, though if you would follow me."

She looked at him quizzically and started to follow, "I was already headed to the Space Bridge. What are you up too?"

He smiled again, "Something, you'll see in a minute."

"Is this a good something or a bad something?"

Optimus looked at her flatly, "Why would I take you someplace bad?"

"Let me think…not five minutes ago?" There was a beat before she said, "So we're going somewhere then."

He sighed, "Please, just follow me."

She smiled and followed him deeper into Iacon until they were just outside the Space Bridge station but didn't see Ratchet waiting like she had expected. She stopped just short of it, mind turning. "Are, we going to Earth?" She asked hopefully.

Optimus turned and smiled, "Yes, are you coming?"

"Yes! Oh my gosh yes!" She ran past him, grabbing his servo and practically dragging him in. They met Galvatron, Bee, Arcee and Bulkhead inside.

Arcee smiled, "Ready to go?"

The Space Bridge opened and they walked through to find Ratchet waiting on the other side but no one else present. Aliena looked around, "Where's Jayce?"

Ratchet smirked and nodded down the hallway leading to a storage room that also held the human quarters. She smiled and switched her forms, running down the hallway.

Optimus watched her leave, smiling happily, when Bee asked, "Where are the other kids?"

"Nurse Darby is picking them up from school, to give you some time to arrive. What is _he_ doing here?" Ratchet asked, pointing at Galvatron.

Optimus set a reassuring servo on his shoulder pads, "It is alright, old friend. He is welcomed back onto Cybertron but is, on a parole of sorts."

"More like I'm being sparklingsat." Galvatron muttered.

Bee glared, "Be grateful it isn't anything worse."

Galvatron intaked, doing his best to suppress a glare, and looked around the hanger. "So this is where you relocated, I thought Starscream destroyed it. Well he bungled it again."

Bulkhead frowned before he smirked a bit and nodded at Optimus, "He and Aliena repainted this hanger and the mess hall."

Galvatron smirked at Optimus, "And the deception continues. Maybe bonding with the human did something good after all."

Optimus held his classical expressionless look while the others dispersed a bit to wait for the kids return.

Arcee grinned and sat on a crate, "I could use a little time to relax."

Bee walked up to Optimus who stood near the door watching the soldiers move about outside and said, "She needed this, time away and visit her brother."

Optimus nodded, "I know, I hate to take her back after only a few days."

Bee sighed and looked down the hallway which she had yet to return from, "Yeah, well that'll come in a few days…she's not the only one who needs a rest."

Optimus didn't look at the new warrior as he answered, "I will be fine Bumblebee."

Bee frowned, "That's not it Optimus. We've, you've been fighting a war for orns and now that it's over we're all rebuilding Cybertron. And you're not just helping to rebuild, you're trying to get a new counsel established and who knows what else all at once. You haven't had a _real_ rest since the war began."

Optimus looked at Bee, "Neither have you."

Bee frowned, "Sure I have, I've had plenty of days to slack off and goof around. You haven't, however. Sure a day or hour here and there with Jemina but nothing substantial."

Optimus sighed, "I will be fine Bumblebee, thank you for your concern but it is not needed."

Bee scowled, "Ok look, you can either go find Je-uhm-Aliena and have some fun and _relax_ , or I can call Ratchet. And I _know_ he'll side with me."

Optimus mentally growled, _Bumblebee_ , a small frown showing and Bee just crossed his arms—waiting. Finally he sighed and turned away from the door, "Alright, I will go find Aliena."

Bee smirked triumphantly.

*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*

Jemina quietly ran down the hallway to the human sized rooms where Jayce's was located. As silently as possible, she opened the door and peeked in. His room was an utter mess, cars, papers, pencils, trains and clothes littered the floor and she couldn't help but sigh quietly. _Figures. Why would I expect him to keep his room clean while I was_ gone _when he can't even do that when I'm here_? She opened the door a little more and saw him sitting at his desk, talking to himself while he was trying to drive a Hot Wheel and color at the same time. She figured the coloring aspect wasn't going quite so well but he was contently babbling away.

Pushing the door open all the way she stepped in, "Hey Jayce."

He instantly stopped talking and put both car and pencil halted. He turned, face blank in disbelief before it broke into a wide smile and practically leapt out of his chair. "Jeeeeminaaaaa!"

"Hey." She smiled as she hugged him close, he doing his best to give her a death hug. "How ya been doin'?"

"I missed you! Why were you gone so long? What happened? Is Cybertron rebuilt yet? Can I come with you?! It's boring here without you guys."

Jemina laughed sadly, "I missed you too Jayce."

Jayce then squirmed out of her arms and dragged her over to a messy pile of papers on the floor, "Look what I drew! It's Optimus, you, me, Bee and Raf!"

Jemina took it and smiled at the terribly drawn stick and box figures, "It's beautiful Jayce."

He pulled her deeper into his room, she trying to dance around his a strewn toys, until they reached his stuffed animal covered bed and plopped down in the unmade covers. "Bartholomew missed you!" He grinned as he held up a tiger the size of his head.

She hugged him, "I missed him too."

Optimus silently watched the pair interact and smiled, waiting a moment before stepping into view, "Hello Jayce."

Jayce's face lit up again and he ran over to him, "Optimus! You're back!"

Optimus fondly hugged the younger Archer. "Yes, we will be here for a little while."

* * *

Hope you like and i'll see you guys in a few days! :)


	7. Chapter 7

Like i promised, a quicker chapter although shorter but oh well. Enjoy!

 ** _Shout Outs!:_**

 **NovaShifter15**

I know, it was so weird but so right!

 **Cashagon**

Haha, yeah, that was kinda on purpose :)

Found him via animated but he's the real Longarm, no need to confuse thing more with Shockwave.

* * *

 **Ratchet looked down the hallway towards Jayce's room where he last saw Optimus and Aliena disappear to.** Raf leaned happily on the rail talking to Bee, the other kids with their respected guardians, catching up. Bulkhead walked over with Miko on his shoulder who kept glancing behind them at Galvatron who silently sat in a corner reading a data pad. "Where'd the head honchos go Ratchet?"

"I saw them head towards Jayce's room some time ago."

Miko pouted, "Would they come out already? I wanted to pull an all-nighter like we used to!"

Bulkhead looked at her quizzically, "You never made it past two AM."

"Eh." She shrugged.

Raf pushed up his glasses, "Jayce is probably showing Jemina everything he's draw since she left. He made that book to show her remember?"

Arcee smiled, "Hm, it wouldn't surprise me if she'd just hiding from Cybertronians in general."

Jack frowned playfully, "Come on Arcee, it can't be that bad."

The bots went very quiet at that before Ratchet said, "She did say she had a vile for me. I'd like to get that sooner rather than later."

Miko piped up, "I'll go get her doc!"

"Miko-" Ratchet warned.

"Hold on!" Jack warned, running after her.

"Oh dear." Raf sighed.

Miko was halfway down the hallway by the time Jack caught up. "Hold on Miko! Jayce probably wants some time alone with them-"

Miko waved him off, "He's had four hours! Now he needs to share, I never knew how much I'd miss the two of them."

Jack rolled his eyes, "You just miss going on flights with Jemina."

Miko grinned, "That too!"

Jack groaned as Miko kept going until they reached Jayce's room, she happily opened the door only to stop abruptly. Jack frowned, "What is it?"

"They're so cute!" Miko cried in a hushed whisper.

Jack poked his head in and saw Jemina and Optimus' holoform laying on Jayce's bed with Jayce snuggled securely between them, Optimus arm around the two of them. The three of them obviously asleep. Jack quietly pulled Miko back and closed the door—the usually hyper girl not resisting at all, only pausing for half a second to take a picture..

Miko giggled as she walked into the hanger and ran over to Arcee, "You gotta see this!"

Arcee blinked and looked over at Miko, confused at her unusual behavior. Since when did she run to her to show her something? However, with one glance at the picture her optics widened slightly in amusement and grinned. She waved Ratchet over who beamed as he looked at the picture, optics shining with a light that would be hard to dim for a while.

The other bots and humans gathered around the photo for several minutes, grinning and talking. Galvatron looked up from his data pad, slightly annoyed at all the commotion over a simple image. _What could be_ that _interesting?_ Curiosity got his better and he stood with a heavy intake, walking over to the group.

Everyone felt his presence immediately and stiffened, Raf holding his breath with a slight squeak and gripping Jack's hand. Galvatron ignored them and proceeded to look down at Miko's phone. He blinked at the image in shock, several emotions and thoughts running through him at once. One of his first thoughts was how uncomfortable it must be to recharge in a holoform before he felt some slight annoyance for no reason only for it to change just as fast to fondness at his brother for _finally_ getting with someone—even though he already knew he had, having visual proof made him smirk and feel slightly victorious. _Took the archivist long enough_.

Apparently the smirk came out with a small grunt that sounded oddly like a chuckle. The bots turned and looked at him with guarded and surprised faced, which also looked slightly horrified while the humans just looked horrified. No one knowing what to make of the situation.

The smirk instantly fell into a look of annoyance, "What?"

Bee was the first to find his voice, "You, just laughed-"

"At a picture." Bulkhead finished.

Galvatron gave them a pointed look, "I happen to find Optimus' position slightly amusing." He said simply before leaving for a berthroom.

*O*O*O*O*O*

Jemina woke up to her brother pouncing on her, "Wake up! It's morning and I'm hungry!"

She smiled and ruffled his hair a bit before standing. She instantly noticed Optimus' holoform's absence but didn't think much about it as she picked her way through the room and into the main room where the others were already gathered. Jayce ran over to Bee, greeting him happily while chomping down on an egg burrito. Jemina saw Optimus and quickly climbed up to his shoulder leaning against his shoulder pad happily.

She sat there for several minutes before little dirt pockets caught her attention. She started picking at the dirt, making it fall loose, only to fine more tiny pockets. After five minute she finally asked, "How long has it been since you've had a _good_ wash?"

There was a long pause before he answered, "I washed only yesterday, but it has been some time since I've been able to have a detailed wash."

Jemina smirked, "Well then, I think it's time." She turned to Ratchet, "Got any soap?"

"It's in the storage room." He answered with a slight smile.

Jemina jumped down, landing in her Cybertronian, and grabbed Optimus' servo—gently pulling him towards the washrooms.

They made a quick stop to grab the soap before she switched her forms and grabbed a soft rag. "So, you gonna stay like that or do wanna be in truck form?"

Optimus smiled and picked her up, "It will be easier to reach most places in bipedal form."

She nodded and hosed his shoulder and upper right arm before taking the rag and lightly scrubbing and reaching in to get the hard to reach joints and pistons. Optimus sighed contently and she smiled, _someone likes getting washed_. As she continued to hose, scrub and clean out more and more dirt, she began to wonder just how much more could possibly be hiding.

It was a good three hours later before she was happy with the results and deemed his wash finished. She climbed down and put the supplies away, "Ok Optimus, I think you're good. Did I miss anything?"

There was nothing but silence.

Jemina frowned and looked up at him only to laugh quietly. While she had been washing him, he had apparently fallen into recharge. His helm laid at an angle to his shoulder pad and his optics were dark. Silently she shook her head before walking out.

She entered the main room and walked up to Ratchet handing him a vile.

He took it and looked at it carefully, face almost glowing with happiness. "Now I might be able to finally figure out Shockwave's half of the formula."

She smiled, "Yeah, it'd sure make the reconstruction part go faster."

Ratchet nodded, happiness instantly fading, "Yes, if only we could've stopped them sooner. But at least now I can _start_ making some progress."

"Didn't you get the synthetic Energon figured out?"

"Yes, though I'm still working on perfecting it. The formula I used in the lock is, adequate but there is room for improvement."

She nodded and left him, opting for the couch where Miko and Raf were racing—Raf winning but barely. She smirked, "You're getting good Miko."

Miko grinned, "We've got a lot of time on our hands now that Cybertron's restored and you've all left."

Jemina smiled sadly before she turned to Raf, "Let me race her."

Raf handed her the controller and smiled at Miko, "You're done now."

Miko glared at Jemina, "No using your powers."

"Why not?" Jemina asked, pouting playfully.

"Because then I don't have a chance!" Miko cried glaring at her.

Jemina smirked at the screen, "You already don't."

Miko frowned as she turned to the TV and cried out in shock and annoyance as the as the light turned green to start the race. "YOU! CHEATER!" Miko instantly grabbed the controller but a fare ways behind Jemina. "You turned down the volume!"

Jayce smirked and Raf shook his head while Jack laughed, "All is fair in love and war…and this game is _war_."

Jemina smirked at Miko, "See, even Jack agrees."

Miko grinned evilly, "Then he'll agree to this!" She drove her shoulder into Jemina's arm, jostling the controller and thus the car. Jemina retaliated by lightly kicking Miko in the shin, making her cry out then kick her in the ankle.

"Since when did this game get so physical?!" Jemina asked as she fought to keep her car in the lead.

"It's always been physical, that's a part of its charm!" Miko cried, taking another shot at Jemina's legs.

Jemina yelp and her eyes glowed, a second later Miko's car swerved violently and Jemina cried out in triumph.

Miko scowled at the TV, "NO POWERS!"

Raf's eyes widened behind his glasses, "Come on Jemina, break her winning streak!"

"HEY! Traitor, you're supposed to root for me!"

Jayce smirked and launched himself at Jemina, tickling her hips and arms. "JAYCE! 'Nock it off!"

Jayce laughed and Miko grinned, "That's better!"

"Oh yeah?" Jack asked before thrusting his hands into Miko's sides.

"JACK!"

Both cars swerved dangerously and nearly crashed into one another. Miko swerved her car to keep it from crashing into the wall and hit Jemina's from behind, pushing her's ahead just enough to win.

"Yes!" She cried.

"No fair! I demand a rematch!" Miko yelled, " _NO_ powers this time!"

Jemina smiled and handed the controller back to Raf, "Nah, I'll quite while I'm ahead."

"Not fair! Rematch! I demand a rematch!"

Jemina smiled and cuddled with her brother, watching Raf start the game.

The base was silent for the next couple of hours until they received a transmission from Cybertron. Ratchet answered it, concern written all over his face when Ultra Magnus and the three council members appeared. "Ultra Magnus, is something wrong?"

Ultra Magnus opened his mouth to answer but Longarm beat him to it. "Something is most _certainly_ wrong. Shockwave has just attacked, with a Predacon."

Jemina looked up from her position on the couch, eyes full of concern. "What happened?"

Ultra Magnus looked at her with pained optics, "The Aerialbots were on patrol when they attacked. It was an ambush. Silverbolt was severely wounded and Skydive received some wounds. Air Raid managed to pull them into an underground cavern that was too small for the Predacon and is keeping Shockwave at bay for the moment…but it is also too small to open a Ground Bridge in."

Galvatron walked up to the screen, a scowl evident, "Why have you not sent them reinforcements?"

Ultra Magnus answered calmly, but it was obvious in his optics that he was not internally calm, "Not many of the returned Cybertronians are warriors and the few that are cannot get close to the Predacon, even when they gang up on him…he is of Predaking's breed."

There were a few gasps or sharp intakes as _that_ news set in and Jemina pieced together the reason for the call. "You don't know how to contact Predaking."

Ultra Magnus nodded, "Affirmative, and to our knowledge he is nowhere near the ambush sight."

She sighed and smiled sadly at Jayce, "Looks like vaca is cut short."

Optimus frowned, "Ratchet, open the Space Bridge."

* * *

And cut! So i'll leave ya there for a bit while i write the next chapter for WWCWN for y'all since i wanted it placed in this area of time. ;) see ya then!


	8. Chapter 8

Hey all! Sooo sorry for he late chapter but college has been a butt. ALSO! I accidentally wrote soundwave last chapter instead of Shockwave, my bad. It's now fixed so yeah, shockwave, not soundwave :)

 _ **Shout Outs!:**_

 **Aloris2.0 the great**

Nope, totally cool. thanks

 **Cashagon**

Thanks for pointing that out, totally missed it when i proof read :( :)  
Enjoy this chapter!

* * *

 **A Space Bridge opened seconds after the transmission ended, Optimus and strangely Galvatron leading the charge**. On the other side Ultra Magnus was the first to greet them, greeting them by relaying the events that transpired in more detail as fast and as logically as possible. Aliena placed a servo on Optimus' shoulder pad, "I'll get Predaking, where are Silverbolt and the others at?"

"The outskirts of Klaksis among the caverns. I'll send you their exact coordinates."

She nodded before running out.

Galvatron turned to Optimus, "Let me take a few Autobots there, try and distract Shockwave while Aliena fetches Predaking."

Optimus thought for a minute before asking Ultra Magnus, "Do you have an estimate on Shockwave's numbers?"

He shook his head, "Not a definite. We know of the Predacon, maybe a few grounders, but none past that."

Optimus turned to Galvatron, "Take Fireflight and Slingshot for air recon but do _not_ engage, we do not know the condition of the Aerialbots' shelter."

Galvatron frowned but nodded, leaving to fulfill his orders.

The council watched him go with silent disapproval, waiting until he left to voice their concerns, Avalon being the first, "Is it wise to let him fight?"

Bee sighed and mumbled quietly, although the mech's sharp hearing picked up on it anyway, "You'd have him offlined if you guys got your way."

Avalon scowled, "And for good reason."

Optimus cut in with a disapproving glance at both Bee and Avalon, "Now is _not_ the time for such arguments, they can be settled later, if they will _ever_ truly be settled. For the moment we must trust that Galvatron will hold true to his words, which he will. A deceiver he has been and still may be, but he holds close his honor which is what will be at stake should he go back on his word."

The council conceded for the moment, knowing the truth in the Prime's words, at least until a more appropriate time to debate it further.

* * *

 **Aliena** flew into Darkmount and scanned the skies for Predaking, spotting him flying in from the east. Too impatient to wait for him she flew out to meet him halfway. The Predacon landed quickly, slightly surprised at her impatience, "Aliena, what has-?"

"Shockwave, he and the Predacon that was missing from the lab just attacked the Aerialbots."

His optics widened slightly before growling, "I will tear out his spark. Take me to them."

She nodded and transformed, flying as fast as Predaking could. "Aliena to Iacon, do you have an exact location yet?"

Arcee answered her, "Twenty klicks southwest of Klaksis, Galvatron said you'll see a large scorch mark on the ground. Their just west of that."

"Thanks Arcee, where's Knockout?"

There was a surprised beat before she answered, "Getting a med bay prepared, why?"

"I'm stopping by to get him, Silverbolt may need more than a basic field patch to get him far enough away to safely open a Ground Bridge."

"I'll tell him to be ready."

The com ended and she relayed their position to Predaking, "I'll meet you there, need to pick up someone first."

She pealed left for Iacon, leaving Predaking on his own.

Breaking into mock speeds to reach Iacon sooner, she and landed none too gracefully outside the medical bay where Knockout was waiting. "Are you _sure_ we won't be able to bring him in via Ground Bridge?"

She jerked her helm towards the emergency Ground Bridge, "Not taking the chance."

Knockout sighed and activated the Ground Bridge, leaving assistant to work it. As soon as they were through the glowing blue/green vortex Knockout immediately wished he'd waited 'til that afternoon to polish his plating.

Aliena scanned the battle field in shock, it seemed that there were many more returned Cybertronians that they hadn't known about, all of which looked to be Decepticons. There had to have been at least a dozen, she couldn't accurately tell due to so many bots and cons running around, firing and dodging. Several stray, and not so stray, bolts and lasers shot towards her and Knockout.

Knockout yelped, seeing them coming at him with no time to move other than raise his servos and arms to protect his helm. Aliena quickly threw up a shield around them, absorbing the shots, before shooting back after gaining cover. "Is this what it was like during the war _on_ Cybertron?" She asked, almost shouting to be heard over the din of the battle.

Knockout shrugged, staying low to avoid the bolts, "More or less."

Aliena growled, popping up over the incline just enough to shoot at the cons pinning them down, taking that second to also scan their surroundings—spark sinking as the cave where the Aerialbots were hunkered down in was just far enough across the slight clearing to be great targets. Air Raid popped around the cave's corner quickly and shot at a con approaching them, nicking him in the side.

"We need cover."

Knockout raised an optic ridge, "Really? You don't say? A bot could lose more than a nice finish out here."

"Really?"

Knockout glared at her, "You're the one that brought me out here!"

"And I'm starting to regret that." She mumbled.

The earth rattled and the air rang with a piercing screech of an enraged Predacon. Aliena and Knockout both poked an optic over the incline to briefly seen Predaking attack another Predacon, landing on top of him before being thrown off and tackled himself, ending up on the bottom then releasing a stream of white hot fire and gaining the upper hand again. Their attacks went back and forth, neither getting a definite upper hand.

"On three, run towards the Aerialbots' shelter."

"Are you crazy?!" Knockout hissed, "That has to be at least a hundred yard gap between them and us! We'll be sitting ducks!"

She smirked, although he didn't see it as her back was to him, "Glad to know you keep up on Earth's humor."

"It can be mildly entertaining, but again, you're insane!"

"Ye-up." She said curtly, "Good thing I can make a temporary shield." Her optics darted across the opening again hissed, grabbing Knockout's arm, "Three!"

He yelped again as he was suddenly drug out into the open and forced to run with the insane femme for dear life, crying out in fear every time a bright light impacted with the invisible energy shield—lighting up a section of it whenever a bolt impacted. Seconds later they dove into the cave and Knockout laid there for a moment to let his intakes return to a healthy rate again before angrily snapping, "What happened to the countdown!?"

"One, two?" She shrugged, "They paused for a moment so it was the best time to go."

Knockout sputtered, "It didn't seem like that to me!"

Aliena stood, "Only about half of them were focused on us."

"Only half she says. Remind me _never_ to trust you."

Aliena looked at him blankly, "You ever did?"

"Enough to think that you weren't suicidal."

"But I'm not, we survived."

Knockout grumbled, dusting himself off, and turned to Air Raid who was preoccupied keeping the cons out firing range on the cave. However, needing to ask where Silverbolt was at was unnecessary as the cave was just deep enough to drag them all safely inside.

Skydive knelt next to Silverbolt, putting pressure over a large laceration on his chest. Knockout frowned at the mess but immediately went to work. Ten minutes later he patched him up enough to safely move him. "Aliena, I've got Silverbolt temporarily stabilized, but we still can't open a Ground Bridge in here!"

Aliena shot at a few cons attempting to get too close, "Got it!" She glanced around the battle field before coming Optimus, "Optimus? Optimus, can you hear me?"

*I am here-* she could hear blasters and explosions through his end of the com link and could only assume that he was here too, somewhere.

"Knockout's got Silverbolt stabilized but we still can't open a Bridge and we're pinned down. If you could spare some air support or something it would be greatly appreciated."

*Understood.*

"Well?" Air Raid asked.

"Backup 'll be comin' soon!" She shouted while shooting around the corner again.

Moments later several powerful blaster shots from overhead cut off the ensuing assault. Galvatron shot into view, drawing many of their attackers' attention.

She turned to the bots, "Alright, we have temporary cover, we need to move, _now_."

Knockout and Air Raid grabbed Silverbolt, Skydive nursing his own arm and leg. They left the cave in the momentary pause of fire and making their way back to the alcove that Knockout and Aliena had used previously. A Ground Bridge reopened at the original coordinates and Knockout gawked at the distance, "They couldn't have opened it _any_ closer."

Aliena proved extra cover fire as they made their way painstakingly slow across the sparse ground.

Knockout, Air Raid and Silverbolt were just about to the Ground Bridge when a blaster whined and Air Raid fell to the ground with a cry of pain. Aliena whirled around to see Shockwave running at them, blaster prepared to fire again. Quickly, she threw up a shield around them all and absorbed the shot but breaking the shield immediately due to the strain of it being so large. It collapsed with a small shockwave making Knockout and Skydive stumble while Aliena fell to her knees.

Her arms switched to blades and shouted, "Get the Aerialbot's through!"

Air Raid groaned but helped Skydive grab the now unconscious Silverbolt, Knockout halfway carrying both Air Raid and Silverbolt.

Shockwave swung his blaster arm like a club at Aliena, forcing her to dodge the swing before retaliating and nicking the cord that powered his blaster, although not severing it. His attention now fully on her forced her to dodge several rapid fire shots. She didn't realize that in the process she had left a clear path to the bots. Shockwave averted his gun just long enough to take a quick but precise shot.

Knockout cried out, gripping his side as he fell away from the Ground Bridge.

Aliena hit Shockwave with a subsonic, causing him to stumble. She ran over to Knockout who was curled up, "Knockout?"

He groaned and blearily opened an optic. She looked down at his wound and saw that he was hit from behind on the left side, a large and raged gash ripping through him.

"Scrap, Knockout, can you stand?"

He trembled as he rolled painfully to push himself up.

Movement from Aliena's side caught her attention. Without thinking she quickly threw up a shield around them, absorbing Shockwave's shot. She groaned as he kept firing, struggling to keep up the shield. "Aliena to Iacon. I need an emergency Ground Bridge, bot down."

There was a static-y reply which she couldn't make out, only catching the words Bridge and use. She quickly dropped the shield and fired an energy bolt, catching Shockwave on his left shoulder plate—burning him badly and causing his cannon to sputter. She glanced at Galvatron and saw him deeply engaged in a massive fight between the half-dozen rouge cons, certainly too busy to help her.

Hurriedly, she wrapped her arm around Knockout, slinging his left arm over her shoulders. They made it a few steps before a piercing screech split the air and something crashed into the ground only yards away from them. She dropped to her knees and threw up another shield, deflected the debris thrown their way. Once the shards of ground stopped flying she immediately hoisted Knockout up again and continued into the fog, intent on using it as cover.

Scrapping to her right made her turn to see Predaking picking himself up, a feral anger in his optics as he screeched into the sky again. She paused to follow his gaze and saw the other Predacon, one that look like another dragon, screech at Predaking before diving.

Aliena saw a cave a few yards to the west and hurriedly turned take shelter in it. An ion blast struck the metal rock near her helm and she instinctively dropped, letting go of Knockout and rolled to a kneeling position—blasters armed and ready. Shockwave stumbled out of the dust cloud, swinging at something. A red arm swung at him from the haze and Optimus slashed at Shockwave with his sword arm.

Shockwave now thoroughly distracted, she turned to Knockout and picked him up again. The ground shook as the Predacons continued their fight and she ducked into the cavern. Aliena dropped Knockout with a cry as she was thrown off her peeds by a shockwave. Glancing over her shoulder she saw the piercing orange optics of a Predacon, and not Predaking.

Its optics narrowed in on hers dangerously, a low growl rising up from its throat. Her spark jumped in terror as he opened his maw, the white fire within lighting up his chest. Her arms instantly switched to blasters and she took aim at the roof of the cave, pouring all her abilities and power into the shot. It struck the roof with enough force to shatter it, crumpling and falling to block the entrance.

Aliena flattened herself over Knockout and raised another shield as the Predacon's fire hit the metal rock, some seeping in and making the room swelter while it simultaneously melted the metal. The moments seemed to last minutes before the fire receded and she could lower the shield. Rolling off of Knockout she stared at the ceiling with heavy intakes, jumping when several _thuds!_ hit the rapidly cooling metal.

She looked around the cavern and saw that it was a tunnel that lead farther into what must have been a hill. Eyeing the melted entrance warily she grabbed Knockout again. He groaned and clutched his side as he stumbled down the tunnel with her. Aliena sighed heavily as she practically dragged him down, retreating even farther underground as the tunnel steepened.

Finally he collapsed and she set him down carefully, hoping they were far enough in that the Predacon or Shockwave wouldn't follow. She glanced down at Knockout's wound and truly assessed it for the first time.

The shot had torn through his armor with almost sickening ease, seeming to just melt it. His systems were raw and open, a few Energon lines had been cauterized by the shot but most had either reopened from his moving and jostling or had never sealed. Already within the span of a minute a large pool of Energon lay beneath him and her servos and side were covered. Her throat constricted as a memory of Predaking flashed in her mind. She couldn't tell what other systems had been hit, but she knew that it was an utter mess and if he didn't get help soon it would be lethal.

Activating her holoform she started cauterizing his wounds and stopped the Energon loss. "Knockout,"

There was no answer.

Her holoform fizzled out and saw that his optics were dark, "No, Knockout, Knockout! Wake up! Stupid ex con, wake up! Come on, I have no idea how to even semi-fix this."

She closed her optics and took an intake and focused on supplying him with some Energon. After a minute she collapsed to the ground, exhausted—optics flickering before darkening as she entered forced recharge.

*O*O*O*O*O*

Aliena onlined her optics, confused by the darkness of the space. She pushed herself up with a groan, feeling sore everywhere, intakes deep and slow as she tried to reorient. Ragged intakes drew her attention to a still form near her and the faint light from her optics revealed Knockout. Recollection of the events that lead them there flooded her with startling force.

She took in a sharp intake as she kneeled by Knockout. She gripped his shoulder pads and shook him slightly, not enough to jar his wounds but hopefully enough to wake him. He still didn't online and Aliena fought to remain calm before turning to his wounds and attempting to seal them enough to prevent the dust and debris from entering in the wound, not sure if Cybertronians got infections the same way humans did but always better to play it safe.

After the patch work was done she focused on giving him more Energon as his levels were dangerously low. Knockout's moaning snapped her out of her work, "Knockout?"

An optic flickered online, the other following soon after along with a pained grown.

Aliena kept her face neutral as she asked, "Hey, are you waking up or just testing out your optics?"

A weak glare was her answer.

"Good." She sat by him for a minute and looked around the tunnel they were in before turning back to him, "I'm going to scout ahead a bit to try and find a way out, we can't go back the way we came in."

Knockout answered weakly, "You can't, go far…your En-Energon levels are getting low."

She quirked an optic ridge, "And _how_ would you know _that_ in your state?"

He looked at her unamused, "I'm a medic, there's some systems that just don't shut down. Also you movements give it away."

Aliena tightened her form and turned back to him, "Well if you have the strength to tell me something that I probably won't do then you can give me a little direction on how to properly patch you up until help arrives or we get out."

Knockout closed his optics and was quiet for a minute, running a diagnostic on himself, "You, need to seal. The filter v-valves."

She knelt down again and carefully undid one of the covering to find the filter valves. With Knockout verbally guiding her she managed to put a semi-decent patch over it resting against the back wall for a moment.

"Is there, areason 'e, can't just gobac?" Knockout asked, slurring his words as he fought forced recharge.

Aliena glanced down the tunnel, "Maybe, maybe not. I just don't want to take the chance of Shockwave still being there."

She looked over at Knockout when he didn't say anything and sighed, he'd fallen back into recharge again. Sighing, she walked into the tunnel and around the corner. The tunnel was pretty straight, as in there were no forks or branches. Every few minutes she'd try her com again, still getting nothing but static.

* * *

 **Optimus** stood on the battle field checking over the Autobots. After Galvatron incapacitated or made the rouge Decepticons flee he'd immediately turned to help Predaking and made the Predacon retreat with Shockwave. Predaking was _not_ happy for the help but seeing the condition of the Autobots let it slide this once—telling Galvatron as much.

Optimus glanced around the converging bots and commed Iacon, "Optimus Prime to Iacon, did the Evac team make it?"

A slightly hurried but calm femme answered, * _The Aerialbots made it through but neither Aliena Prime or Knockout came with._ "

Optimus frowned, he'd understand if Aliena hadn't gone through. She'd be of more help on the battle field than in a medical field but Knockout? He thought back to when he'd engaged Shockwave. There's been too much dust to properly see more than a klick or so and so had barely seen Aliena run into the dust cloud for cover but couldn't remember if anyone had been with her. He started searching the bond only to find nothing there. Nothing as in the sense there was no thoughts or feelings emanating from Aliena. He knew she wasn't good at the process yet but he'd always been able to find them if he search, all he could feel now was her essence, like she was unconscious.

Predaking transformed and walked over to Optimus, "I saw her carrying Knockout into the cave nearby." He gestured to the rubble covered and melted cave mouth. "He looked gravely wounded."

Optimus stared at the blocked cave entrance for a long nanosecond, a hundred thoughts—most of which were not good—flashed through his processor before he shoved them down and spoke calmly although a silent command to act swiftly carried with it. "Any Autobot injured can return to Iacon for repairs, everyone else, we'll begin to dig out the entrance. Does anyone know these caves?"

Jazz spoke up, "I can't say I know the cave's personally, but my squad and I were trapped in several of them for a time. A good number of them wined around and come out somewhere else."

Optimus scanned the cliff the cave was buried in, hundreds of possible exists were plausible, if it exited out of the cliff at all.

Bee walked up to Optimus, "Optimus, she might not even still be there. Knowing her she'll find another way out, I can start patrolling a perimeter."

Optimus nodded and they dispersed.

* * *

 **Aliena** paused in another underground cave, sighing in defeat when it didn't lead to an exit. The tunnel continued on for a ways but she turned her back to it to find Knockout again. She was pretty sure they'd left nice Energon trail to follow and worry still gnawed at her.

When she returned to Knockout he was still in stasis. Prodding him in the side a few times, and procuring no movement, Aliena grabbed his arm and carefully lifted him up and started carrying him down the tunnel. By the time they reached the new cave, which took almost an hour, Aliena was having a hard time staying online herself. She dropped him on the floor as carefully as one could drop someone and proceeded to sink to the floor herself. Optics offlined not a minute later.

Light scraping noises and tired grunts greeted tired audio receptors. She laid still for another minute, unwilling to move or even online her optics until something prodded her side and made her frown. A little more light invaded the void, the other source of light being Knockout's optics, which were focused on her.

Something poked her side and she hissed and glared down at her side, ready to smack away the source of pain only to stop, when she saw Knockout's less than normally graceful servos patching up a tear in her side. She glanced farther down and saw many other basic patches closing wounds slightly larger than small cuts and scrapes.

Knockout paused what he was doing and she shifted, sitting in one position for so long started kinking wiring in the wrong places. She stilled for a second to fight off a wave of blackness before kneeling to stand, only for Knockout to weakly press her down from where he sat—looking better and no longer near death but still very weak.

"Don't." He rasped hoarsely, pain lacing his voice, "You're already too low, on Energon. I'm not sure I want to know, why I still have an acceptable amount when, _I_ was the gravely wounded one."

She smirked as she proceeded to stand, albeit shakily, "Oh just the benefits of some of my abilities."

He glared at her and she ignored him.

Something small lightly collided with her helm and she turned to see a small metallic pebble plinking to the ground then saw Knockout limply holding another one, his warning plainly written on his faceplates.

"What do you _want_ me to do, sit here until Shockwave finds us?"

"He probably won't. Not while we have both Predaking _and_ M-Galvatron fighting together, don't forget Optimus Prime."

"Yeah, it's kinda hard for me to forget him." Aliena snapped, fatigue and Energon loss waring on her.

Knockout dropped his glare but held a level look, "What I _want_ if for you to save whatever you have left of your Energon and wait for Optimus and the others to get to us. You can contact him and guide him us; Primus knows how many loops and branches you took us through."

She sat down, with an annoyed sigh. Silently cursing the fact that he _was_ right, her Energon levels were too low, she'd be knocked into forced recharge soon. "I don't know _how_ to contact him. There's still a _lot_ that I don't get about being Cybertronian."

Knockout frowned, "How do your carriers know then if their youngling needs something?"

She blinked before responding, "We just, tell them? Vocally."

Knockout frowned, "But what if you don't? There're plenty of things far too painful to simply just, _say_."

She shrugged, "I guess you either know how to read emotions or you wait till they say something."

Knockout looked down, "That sounds awful."

"We're just used to it I suppose…I'm sure there's several that'd rather prefer not having them be able to read us like an open book."

He looked at her for a long second, "I take it you were one of those."

"Yeah, I suppose so. Not like it mattered much anyway, my mom knew me too well so it really wasn't worth the effort."

"But still…" Knockout shook his helm sadly. "So your sparklings, can they _really_ only communicate in their screams? It seems as though that would grate on the processor over time."

When she didn't respond he glanced her direction only to see her in forced recharge. He laid his helm against the wall, relenting to recharge as well.

* * *

 **Optimus** reached out through the bond again, briefly grasping something before it slipped and she went silent again. The last of the boulders were moved enough to fit inside. Optimus was the first in, followed by Galvatron and Bee, who returned after patrolling after a couple hours and switching with someone else. Optimus and especially Galvatron had to hunch over slightly in the low tunnel.

A certain joy washed through Optimus as he was finally able to follow after his sparkmate and could only pray that the dried blue drops they were following were Knockout's alone. After a couple minutes of brisk walking they paused in a larger cavern where they had obviously stopped to rest for a bit, a larger puddle still on the ground.

Bee walked around Optimus to the other tunnel, lights from his chassis lighting the floor. The marks were light, and most would have missed them, but they lead down the tunnel and to the right of a fork. "Optimus, they're this way!"

Optimus turned immediately and started following him. Fifteen minutes later they entered another cavern within the confusing tunnel system and saw a form lying on the ground almost opposite to their entrance. Optimus was the first to recognize her outline, nearly pushing over Bumblebee in his haste.

Aliena was lying against the wall with her optics offlined and Optimus gently grabbed her but she still didn't stir, his only relief was that he could feel a faint pulse beneath her armor.

Knockout was jostled online, optics wide before he recognized Galvatron, "Oh thank Primus."

Galvatron helped him stand, practically holding him.

Bee blinked when he turned, more than slightly surprised by the scene. He fought the urge to laugh, given just how uncomfortable each was with the other's presence being so close, but the situation was unavoidable as Optimus carried a still unconscious Aliena.

Knockout said weakly, "Her Energon levels are dangerously low."

Optimus looked at him, "As are yours."

* * *

 **Hard** was the first sensation she felt, then the realization that nothing was poking her side. Onlining her optics she looked up and saw an Energon line leading from a cube or a bag or _something_ to a couple areas on her arm or chest plate. Her optics then trailed over to the side to find Optimus sitting there with his head on the berth.

Her laugh roused him and he smiled, relieved, "How are you feeling?"

"Better, not so doggone tired." There was silence for a moment before she muttered, "We've got to stop meeting like this."

Optimus laughed quietly and held her servo, "Yes, I agree."

She smiled before it fell, "How's Knockout and Silverbolt?"

He nodded, "Knockout will be alright, nothing too serious was done. Silverbolt will be down for longer than Knockout but nothing was irreparable."

She sighed, relieved, before laying her helm on the berth, still exhausted.

Just before recharge claimed her again, she felt a gentle kiss on her forehead.

* * *

Ok, done! Small breather. I will post another chapter in WWCWN before uploading here again because there's a few things that need to be changed for that story but it isn't much so hopefully a quicker update! Until next time, R&R!


	9. Chapter 9

Hello, all! So sorry for the sucky update time but i finally got this corrected and out, so yay! Enjoy!

 ** _Shout Outs!:_**

 **Cashagon**

Haha, both are alive, so it's all good ;)

 **gwencarson126**

Sorry, not soon. But i'll continue to write, so no fear, i _will_ update!

 **NovaShifter15**

Nah, yer cool. Same kind of thing happens to me. I know right? the chance was to good to pass up.

 **Aloris2.0 the great**

Thank you!

* * *

 **Aliena was released with a well-placed warning from Knockout not overtax herself for the next few days.** She wandered into the heart of Iacon where several returning bots were being told where their quarters what they could do to help in the rebuilding. Figuring that _that_ wouldn't be too much strain, and give her something to distract boredom with, she walked over. A group was about to leave on a quick tour of where the necessities for living and rebuilding were located.

A mech a little taller than Bee but defiantly older smiled and introduced her to the group and she nodded politely. "Do you need any help here?"

The mech laughed and shook his helm, "No, we couldn't ask that of a Prime."

She internally sighed in relief that the whole debate over her position as a Prime was finally dwindling to an end but shook her helm, "It's not a problem-"

"But it wouldn't be proper."

"Proper?"

Several of the bots laughed and shook their helms while a few whispered to the new ones about her past while the mech answered, "Such a task is below a Prime, especially for low ranking bots."

She frowned, "But, wasn't the war to end factions?"

The mech looked slightly nervous but nodded, "Partly. But, please, shouldn't you be in the Political Hall with Optimus Prime to help set up the new counsel?"

She laughed, "Yeah, I don't think that'd go over well."

The mech nodded but said anyway, "Well, we cannot have you stoop to this level of serving."

"But I was helping to rebuild just days ago." She fought a glare, looking slightly hurt.

"That may be," He agreed, "but there are more bots who can work on that now. It's no longer your concern."

"But-"

"Thank you, but it would be best for you to find another job more suitable for a Prime."

They left and she watched them, hurt and angry, mostly at not understanding _why_. Intaking deeply she left to find Optimus.

Just like the mech said, he was at the Political Hall, a slightly heated discussion happening between the old counsel and Galvatron, Optimus mostly refereeing. He felt her enter and turned with a relieved smile that was partially strained, a silent plea in his optics.

Aliena couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped her at the sight, never having expected Optimus to be so desperate to get out of _anything_. They turned to looked at her as she approached and grabbed Optimus' arm, "I'll just be barrowing him for a minute…try not to kill each other—I got a good bet who'd win."

Galvatron smirked slightly while the others frowned as she dragged Optimus out.

Once the doors were closed Optimus vented for a good minute, thumb and foredidget pressed between his optics, "Thank you."

"No problem but you can repay me by explaining why no one, and I mean _no one_ is letting me do _anything_ to help anymore. They all just keep saying I should be here with you. What's wrong with me helping to rebuild?"

Optimus looked at her sadly. "I feared that this would happen. They still have the old system buried within them, even if they _know_ that it's been demolished, they still silently follow it."

"Well it sucks." She hissed, anger rising again. "I want to do something _besides_ sitting in _there_ with a bunch of politicians that drive me insane. It's not my forte and I _know_ that."

He nodded slowly, "I know." He vented deeply again, "We can only hope to change it with time. Just be patient."

"What am I supposed to do then? I'll be of _no_ help here and they won't let me help out there." She jerked her helm towards the door.

Optimus shook his helm, "All I can do is offer Ultra Magnus' division."

"Patrol."

He nodded, "Until things change more, yes." She sighed and looked down. "Once the Aerialbots have recovered you will be invaluable for further patrol and scouting for good cities to start restoring."

She nodded and he turned to leave when she grabbed his arm, "Optimus, what are we going to do about my abilities? There's been more than one time where I've let them slip but thankfully the bots were focused on something else to notice…but it'll only be a matter of time before _someone_ notices."

He hummed in agreement, "I would like to give it bit more time, everything and you are still so new, I'm not sure how they will take it."

She nodded, "Alright, thanks."

He grabbed her and pulled her into a kiss, making it last a bit before separating, putting his helm against hers, "We will figure this out, we just need a bit more time."

Angry shouting suddenly erupted from the Hall and Aliena laughed and sighed, "You better get in there before war starts, again."

Optimus nodded and left.

Aliena watched him go before turning and heading for the Patrol Base near the east end of the city, where Ultra Magnus would be.

*O*

Aliena flew overhead while Jazz and Bee drove below her. They were finishing their lap around Iacon, Jazz came in over the intercom, mainly talking to Bee, "*…So I was planning to go watch the races, heard Moonracer came back. Primus, haven't seen her race since the war.*"

Bee laughed, "*Yeah, I can't say I remember her, I was just a mechling.*"

"*Well then I'm defiantly dragging you with me.* Bee laughed. "*What do you say Aliena, comin' with?*"

"I—probably not."

"*Oh come on, live a little!*" Jazz cried jokingly.

"Sorry Jazz, I just don't feel up to it right now. Next time maybe."

"*Alright, but I'll keep pestering you.*"

She laughed, "Alight. See you guys later."

They drove in for the city while she peeled out for the Sea of Rust, heading for a familiar location. A fair ways from Darkmount she transformed and walked, not wanting to draw Predaking to her for no reason. As she entered the fortress she kept questioning _why_ she was repeatedly draw to such a place, especially since it make her shiver every time she was near. _Nothing_ good every occurred here.

As she made her way to the room where she found Predaking she was constantly on guard for unsprung traps or other such devises. Before long she was standing in the room, powers spreading and searching for anything of harm. Stepping around a few suspicious spots she made her way towards the back wall near the left, placing her servo against it—she could faintly feel a soft pull of long dissipated, remnant energy. Her brows creased, for her to feel _anything_ whatever was behind the wall must have been activated not too terribly long ago.

She was so focused on finding a way behind the wall that she missed an approach from behind her.

"There is a switch on the floor at the corner."

She jumped and whirled around, blades activated.

Galvatron stood behind her and chuckled a little, "Your reflexes are good, but you should have heard my coming."

She frowned, "What are you doing here?"

He looked at her amused, "I should ask you the same thing."

She cautiously deactivated her blades and straightened, "I don't know. I just keep getting drawn back out here. Why were you following me?"

"I saw you fly for Kaon at the end of your patrol, curiosity got my better as most stray away from here like the plague."

"Hmm…guess I'm lacking common sense."

He raised a brow, amused, "I could have said the same thing before the war ended."

She watched him carefully as he neared, avoiding a few spots on the floor, "I will not harm you, you have won my respect."

Her brow arched, suspecting what he meant, "Yeah well, I wish I hadn't."

He paused by the wall and looked at her sadly, "I am truly sorry for I have done and I know there is nothing I can do to even begin to repay it. But I would like to try, I am trying."

She nodded, subconsciously gripping her scarred side as leaned down pressed the hidden switch. Part of the wall slid away revealing a dark room. Aliena searched around for the console and activated it, bathing the room in light.

Galvatron looked around before saying to her, "I had forgotten about this room until I found you here."

She barely looked at him with a silent question as she started tapping on the console. "So what was held in here? Must have been pretty valuable if you left weapons strong enough to kill Predacons here to guard it."

"Indeed, it is the Iacon data base."

She paused and looked at him, "But isn't-wasn't that on the Nemesis?"

He laughed as he brought up the main file, "Only half. The data base was so large that we could only take a fraction of what was there."

"Lucky you managed to grab the files relating to the Omega Keys." She muttered.

Galvatron looked at her with curiosity, "Ah, so you do know what they are."

"Yeah, A-3 didn't give me something without telling me what it was."

He laughed, "A-3. I haven't heard him called by that since Orion Pax…"

She rolled her optics as she looked around, "So what did you use to transfer it here? I doubt even a Cybertronian flash drive would be big enough for it."

He gestured to the console. "Everything is on hard storage. Even without power everything will be safe."

"So we just carry it out of here?"

He nodded, "It would be the best and easiest way."

She vented before kneeling down to unplug cables after it had been shut down. "Was there anything else that was in here?"

"No. Just the storage drives. Why?"

She finished unplugging the console, "Because there was remnant energy, like someone had been here recently."

Galvatron frowned. "I don't see how. Only my—"

"Only your who?" Aliena asked.

He growled, "Starscream."

She stood, worry in her optics, "He was the one who lead the Predacons here and tripped on a trap."

Galvatron glared at the door, "He no doubt escaped through this room."

She grunted as she lifted the console before Galvatron grabbed it, "We need to get this back and see what he took."

He nodded, carrying it out.

* * *

 **The** clerk jumped when Galvatron set the console down, dropping it near the end, as Aliena grabbed the cable and looked for something akin to a power socket. He nervously walked over to the duo and asked, "I-is ther-re anything I could as-ssist with?"

Galvatron continued to reactivate the console while Aliena nodded, "Yeah, could you get Optimus down here? He might want to see this."

The clerk nodded quickly and hurried away, more than happy to fulfill the request and leave _his_ presence.

The console onlined and the same file lit the screen. Aliena exited out of the file and began looking through several others, finding most of them coded. Galvatron leaned over and pointed out a specific file, "That was one has multiple codes and locks." She looked at him questioningly to which he only sent her a blank look, "You don't think I wouldn't have looked through the files?"

She shrugged, "Never thought about it I guess."

Galvatron nodded, "If I had known we would have Orion Pax in our midst for a time I would have brought this file with us. As it is, it is one of the largest and most secure."

Sometime later Optimus walked in to find Galvatron and Aliena pouring over a console, discussing a few things that lit the screen. To say that he was surprise was an understatement, but he also smiled at the sight. "What is it that you needed?"

They turned and Aliena nodded at the console, "Apparently what the Nemesis had was only half of the Iacon Data base. The rest is here."

Optimus raised a brow ridge, "Where was it?"

"Darkmount." Aliena answered, "In a hidden room behind the room where I found Predaking."

Galvatron smirked, "Your sparkmate has good intuition, I had forgotten about that room."

Optimus walked over to the console as Galvatron brought up a different file. He immediately recognized the typically Iacon coding along with several layers of extra coding, "What?"

Galvatron nodded at it, "Whatever this is Alpha Trion went to great lengths to keep it hidden. Though as to what it is, I do not have a clue."

Optimus nodded, curious as well, moving to the console and typing in a few commands. "It's heavily encrypted, it will take me some time to crack."

Galvatron grabbed a data pad and downloaded to file for him. "It will probably be best to limit time spent here, the counsel would not be happy to find you constantly in the Hall of Records again."

Aliena frowned, "Let me guess, it's below a Prime?"

Both nodded, Optimus adding, "Unfortunately."

As they left the sky was dipping into darkness. Galvatron nodded and left, leaving the Primes alone.

Optimus subspaced the pad and grabbed Aliena's servo, "Shall we head home?"

She nodded, "Yeah, it's getting late."

*O*

Aliena woke up to the sound of rain outside. She rolled over and grabbed the blanket, mind slipping back to that of a human as she tried to press into the wall while also curling around Aja for warmth. In reality, she pulled the metallic mesh off of Optimus while shoving his peeds off the berth.

He startled online, blinking at his half on—half off the berth state before lightly frowning at Aliena. The rain continued outside and he sighed, there would be no leaving shelter today, not until the acid rain stopped. A content hum escaped him as he laid back down and grabbed some of the mesh and pulled it away from Aliena who was laying on a wad of it.

She gripped it harder and he frowned, "Aliena, I would like some as well."

"Mine." She growled sleepily.

A playful smile broke onto his faceplates, "Only half of it."

"No, mine, all mine." She proceeded to curl up around it and Optimus chuckled.

Slowly, he reached down for her wings and started tracing them, instantly making her relax and allowing him to pull the mesh back towards himself. "You know, if you wanted me to trace your wings, all you had to do is say so."

A content purr escaped her, masking any reply she had planned.

He continued for several minutes before stopping, allowing Aliena to finally speak, "Aren't you supposed to be with the counsel this morning, _again_."

"There's acid rain."

"You don't sound too terribly broken up about it." She laughed.

He rested his helm on her neck, "Because I'm not."

She sat up, "Well, I guess that gives you plenty of time to work on decoding that file." Optimus pouted. Aliena turned to take a good look, blinking at the sight, "By the, I never thought I'd see the day where you'd stick out your bottom lip."

He smiled, "I never thought I'd see the day when humans could become Cybertronians."

Aliena frowned playfully and threw the mesh over his helm as she stood.

Optimus followed her out where she grabbed an Energon cube for both of them. He sat on a couch with the data pad and she handed him the cube, snuggling into his as he started decoding.

Hours ticked by and the rain didn't let up, if anything, it only increased

Aliena leaned on Optimus' shoulder armor as he set down the data pad, rubbing his optic, "I am now realizing just _how_ out of practice I am while the old codes."

She smirked, "Hehe, well, break for a bit. Jayce and the others are calling in shortly."

He grinned at the welcomed distraction and activated the console in their room. Minutes later a transmission from Ratchet came through, his face filling the screen, "Ah, is the transmission clear?"

Aliena nodded, "Yup."

The kids filled the screen a moment later and Jayce beamed, holding a slightly mangy cat while Aja balance her front paws precariously on his shoulder, precarious for him as it threatened to topple him backwards. She was leaning over him, trying to sniff the cat while the cat kept trying to climb up to her. "Jemina! Hi, can I keep it? Please!"

Ratchet's voice echoed through the room, "No! Having one creature here is bad enough, that one really will go _squish_! It's puny!"

Jayce put on a pleading face, though she wasn't really sure if he was pleading with her or Ratchet, "Please! I promise I'll take care of her! She doesn't have anywhere else to go!"

Optimus stared at the pitiful creature in Jayce's hands.

"I said no!"

"Please Jem?! Please, please, please!"

"Well, I think Ratchet has the deciding vote since he's the one watching you."

Miko popped up, "Oh come on! He'd say no to having us here!" She grabbed the cat, "Look, Aja needs someone else, that's _not me_ , to cuddle with!" Aja had jumped from Jayce's shoulder and sat expectantly at Miko's feet.

Raf sat on the ground next to Aja and stroked her, "What harm could _one_ cat do? And she's really is cute."

Optimus finally spoke, "What is the harm on letting the, cat stay, Old Friend?"

"Primus no!" Ratchet suddenly appeared on screen, "Optimus, you can't seriously be thinking about-?"

"Why not? It might even keep Miko out of your wires for a while." A small smirk made its way up his face plates as Miko nodded vigorously and Ratchet considered.

After a lifetime he finally sighed, "Fine, fine, fine. Can't believe there's another…" His muttering died away as he went back to work.

Jack grabbed the cat and set her next to Aja who began cleaning her. He laughed before looking up, "How's the rebuilding coming?"

"Slow." Aliena shrugged, "But coming along."

Optimus nodded, "Most of Iacon has been rebuilt and preparations are being made for other cities as well. Galvatron and I are working with the old counsel to set up a new one. I believe we are nearing completion."

Miko smirked, "Where's Aliena in all this?"

"Certainly not with the counsel." She frowned, "Nah, I'm mostly just doing odd jobs…so mainly patrolling."

Jack frowned, "That's it?"

She sighed, "Apparently they still have a lot of old rules and customs stuck in their processors."

Raf frowned and Miko chirped, "Well I guess that means you get to kick rough 'con butt more often then, huh?!"

Aliena laughed with a sigh, "Yeah, I suppose it does."

Miko flashed thumbs up, "See, not all bad."

"Guess not. But we're all stuck inside today, got acid rain here."

"Oh, bummer."

Jack laughed, "I don't think Optimus thinks so."

All humans laughed before Optimus answered, "Not really. A peaceful, quiet moment from the rebuilding."

Jayce grabbed for the cat again while dodging Aja who tried to sit on him. "So what are you going to name, her?" Aliena asked.

"Haven't decided yet." Raf said.

"But we've been thinking about Sera Midnight Amber Twinkie!" Miko grinned.

Aliena and Optimus shared a confused looked as Jack sighed, "We are _not_ naming her that."

"Come on." Miko whined, "We haven't agreed on a name yet, it's perfect!"

Raf frowned, "We'll confuse the poor thing."

"Twinkie?" Aliena finally asked.

"Yeah! At home I have a cat named Ding Dong so why not?"

She shook her head as they continued to debate the name before Optimus suggested, "Why not name her Abyss?"

The kids stopped and thought about it before looking at the pitch black cat and Jack nodded, "It fit."

Miko grinned, "I like it, sounds mysterious."

Raf nodded and Jayce squealed, "Abyss she is then!"

Aliena smiled and looked at Optimus, "Glad to know you aren't horrible with names."

He blinked and looked at her, "Why is that?"

"Because it means that I'll have some good help with names when we have kids."

Optimus only sat there in thought while the kids continued talking.

After a while the transmission ended and Aliena looked at him, "Are you ok? You didn't say much after they named Abyss, or after you named Abyss."

He looked up and held her servo, "I am just starting to come to terms with something I thought I'd never be able to have."

Aliena's optic's widened slightly as she understood and tucked her head into his chest plating, "Well, we'll have a family someday."

Optimus closed his optics and smiled, "I know, and I cannot wait for that day."

* * *

Well, a little more Optimus/Aliena fluff for y'all before we get into, well, something a bit more intense. Have a great rest of your week! Leave a review if you liked! I love hearing from y'all, it makes my day :)


	10. Chapter 10

Hi, i finally got another chapter out! yay! So IMPORTANT! i have TWO! new chapters in WWCWN, so hop on over there to read some Loki fluff. but now onto this story, hope you like because i struggled a bit with it :| Enjoy!

 _ **Shout Outs!:**_

 **Cashagon**

I know! so _many_ plans! Uncle Galvi...hehe-evil snicker

 **Guest**

 **PLEASE UPDATE! It's too good!**

Thank you! :D

 **Aloris2.0 the great**

Nope, yer cool ;) thanks :)

 **NovaShifter15**

I have and i hope you've read it! Gracious

* * *

 **The** rain stopped by early morning the next day, Optimus was at the Political Hall once again, as was Aliena. Avalon argued about the voting system for new counsel members with Galvatron and Aliena whispered to Optimus, " _Why_ am I here again?"

Optimus answered with a slightly unsure look himself, "I am not entirely sure, though I do believe they wish to discuss a matter concerning the Predacons."

"Oh."

Avalon glared at an ex-con while Levitacus began, "Optimus Prime is right, it does concern the Predacons, but other issues as well."

Aliena looked skeptical but listened as Longarm spoke. "Has there been any new news on Shockwave's Predacon or on Shockwave himself?"

She shook her head, "No, not since he attacked the Aerialbots."

"What of Starscream?"

She sighed, "If there was anything to report it would have been already."

Levitacus smiled, "That is good to know."

She glanced at the door longingly as the room's air began to constrict, "Not to be rude but, was there some other reason you needed me or…?"

Avalon nodded, "There is. With Iacon rebuilt we are starting to move to other cities and rebuild them. Tyger Pax and Klaksis are already underway, however, we were planning to start reconstruction on Tyrest as well."

Aliena blinked, frowning as she thought, "Isn't-isn't that the city near Kaon? Bordering the Sea of Rust?"

Avalon nodded, "Indeed it is."

Her frown deepened, "But that's where the Predacons live."

"And that's where the problem lies." Longarm replied.

Aliena fixed him with a hard look, "I don't think building there is an option. Besides, I saw it, as did Bee and several others…it may as well be considered part of the Sea of Rust for all its worth. Kaon would be a better place to fix up than there."

Leviticus shook his helm and refuted, "But most are not willing to live in Kaon."

She arched an optic ridge, "Most _Autobots_ or most _Cybertronians_?"

"Does it matter?" Avalon asked.

Optimus kept a neutral face while Galvatron silently bore into the counsel.

"Of course it does!" Aliena fought to keep her voice relatively calm, hiding these kind of emotions were _not_ her forte. "We're offering _Decepticons_ the chance to live peacefully and, to be honest, I don't know how well that's going to go if you only focus on the Autobots. Kaon is a familiar place to a lot of them, just as Iacon and Klaksis are to Autobots. Besides, I'm _not_ going to 'try' talk Predaking out of Tyrest. They need someplace to live too and that place out of anywhere is good enough."

Avalon borderline glared at her, "This isn't-"

"It is!" She cut him off, "And I'm not going to. Rebuild Kaon, or Vos, or some other place, but _leave them alone_."

"You are being unreasonable!"

" _I'm_ being unreasonable? Have you even _listened_ to what I've said?!"

Optimus stepped between the two, "I believe that this discussion is at a close."

Avalon pushed Optimus out of the way, "No, she is a Prime now and must learn to be what a Prime _is_." His attention turned to Aliena, "You cannot just spend all your time patrolling and leading the Aerialbots. Your _place_ is here in this Hall with the _Autobots_ , so learn it."

Her face was entirely unreadable but her optics hardened. She shook her head and stepped back before walking away.

Avalon's faceplate became a light tinge of blue as he yelled, "Aliena, Aliena Prime!" At his yelling she sprinted out of the Hall, foot thrusters activating to hasten her leave. He turned to Optimus, "You're her sparkmate, get her back in here."

Galvatron growled lowly at him while Leviticus and Longarm remained silent, watching the exchange. Optimus retained his usual calm look, however, his optics and voice carried a silent threat, "I will not. This matter is closed and she has given you very valid reasoning."

"But-!"

"Enough!" Galvatron finally broke, "She is a Prime, _your_ Prime and the Predacon's representative."

Optimus' calm charade finally broke, face dipping into his disapproving look, "And despite what you _may_ want to believe, this is _not_ her place."

*O*

Aliena flew out on her patrol, not waiting for the other two to arrive. She was well into the patrol by the time the Aerialbots caught up. "*Whoa, Aliena, wait up.*" Silverbolt commed.

Aliena slowed to wait for Silverbolt and Skydive, the latter asking, "*You went on _way_ ahead of us, what's up?*"

"Nothing, just, the counsel…"

The coms were silent for several minutes as no one could think of anything to say, and Aliena wasn't up for talking at the moment.

They were nearing the end of the patrol when Silverbolt suddenly commed, "*Hey, me and the others were planning on heading to Tyger Pax tomorrow to help in some of the building. Did you want to come?*"

"Probably best I not, I'd just get kicked out no doubt." Had she been in bipedal form she would have rolled her optics.

Skydive's voice was sympathetic, "*Well, we'll keep an optic open for anything strange then.*"

"Alright, thanks."

They split off and Aliena landed near the edge of the city and bent the light around her so as not be seen. The _last_ thing she wanted was to seen and stopped or given any of the myriad of looks she was now used too.

She reached their house within an acceptable few minutes, opening the door and shutting it quietly—resting her helm against the cool metal and letting the bent light drop.

"A door opening by itself is very peculiar."

Aliena jumped and activated her blasters, aiming at the couch where Galvatron sat. After several second to regain her beating spark she asked, "What the pit are you _doing_ here?"

He smirked, "Optimus wished to discuss some things without the counsel around." He gestured to the house.

She deactivated her guns and intaked, "Great, swell, give me a heart attack while you're at it."

"I believe, it would be a spark attack."

She glared at him, "Whatever."

She closed the berthroom door and leaned against it with a vent, was there no peace to be found? Deciding that Optimus could be a while she decided to call Jayce and the others for the moment. Sometime during the call she heard Optimus enter and discuss something with Galvatron. It was well into the night, and long after the call had ended, when Optimus finally came to recharge.

Aliena roused just enough to hear him enter but made no move to show it, and neither did he as he simply laid down to recharge.

*O*

Optimus found Aliena sitting on the couch the next day with a cube in servo but untouched. He sighed and sat next to her, after grabbing his own, "They _won't_ be rebuilding on Tyrest."

"Good." She answered emotionlessly.

"Aliena…Aliena?" She didn't respond, just stared ahead. "Aliena, look at me, please?"

She finally turned to look at him, "What?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

He frowned, "I know that there's something, Jemina, do not tell me 'nothing'."

"Fine! There is something, it's the counsel, and all of freakin' Cybertron!" Optimus' optic ridges rose but remained silent. "I just _can't_ Optimus! I can't be what they want! They want me to be Cybertronian. They want me _not_ to help them. They want me to be in that blasted _Political Hall_ getting things straightened out. They want me to be _you_ and I'm _not_!" By this point she was standing and pacing the floor. "I'm at my wits end with all of…this!"

Optimus stood and lightly grabbed her arm, stopping her from her pacing, but she still kept her helm turned away and glared at a corner. "That is because many of them have forgotten what the Thirteen were like, and how their roles varied from one-another's."

She brushed his servo off, with a scoff, "Yeah, well they certainly won't listen to me about it."

Optimus looked at her, hurt in his optics, "We all have roles we play, we just haven't found yours. Once the new counsel is established I _will_ work with you more, I promise, but this-"

"I know, I know. It _needs_ to be done. I get that, it's just. Everything they want of me I can't do. I _want_ to help rebuild. I _want_ to help scout new areas _to_ rebuild. I _want_ to with the Energon distributions; but it's "below a Prime" or "it's not something Optimus _Prime_ would do"—I've freakin' heard that one too! They don't _know_ what you've done, what I've _seen_ you do. And I'm just so-" her servos fisted in anger as she growled/yelled before continuing. " _They_ want me in that Hall and they won't let me do anything else! I swear that if Ultra Magnus _wasn't_ the head of the patrols I wouldn't be allowed to do that either!

"And when I'm _finally_ in there, doing what they _want_ me too—they don't _listen_ and pass everything I'm trying to say off like I'm a child who doesn't know what consequences are." Lubricant began rolling down her faceplates as she buried her helm in Optimus' chest plates. "Optimus I— _why_ am I a Prime if I can't do _anything_."

Optimus was silent for several minutes while she recollected herself, "What you _can_ do, is not something they can see, or even understand. Even I don't understand it or know why, but all Primes are chosen for a _reason_. And I firmly believe that yours is to make Cybertron better. Where you come from, you hold no lingering prejudice or loyalties to any faction—like even _I_ do. You can see bots for what they _are,_ not what they _were_." Optimus paused, in thought, "Why don't we take the day off? There was a beautiful place I knew of long ago in Iacon. It may or may not still be there."

She looked at him quizzically, " _You're_ going to blow the counsel off?"

"No," he smiled in a way that Orion Pax did, usually when he was scheming something, "but the health and wellbeing of one's sparkmate is most vital; and it is highly looked down upon for one of a high class or a _Prime_ to let that health decay."

She smirked, "Isn't that an old, _caste_ rule."

"Yes, technically, but as my sparkmate you come first."

"So where is this place?"

*O*

Galvatron stood with the counsel waiting for Optimus. It was taking every bit of self-control he had to not snap one of their necks, or burn a hole through a chest plate with his fusion canon, or…he intaked and pushed the thoughts away. As desirable as they sounded, it wasn't right.

When he got a ping from Optimus opening a com line, he nearly jumped for joy. But instead, he growled out, "Optimus, in all the millennia I have known you and we have fought each other, I have never known you to be this fragging _late_."

He swore he could see an amused sparkle in the Prime's optics when he answered calmly, "*My apologies, Galvatron, but I will not be coming to the Hall today.*"

"What?"

"*Something was brought to light with Aliena and I believe we are in need of some time away from everything.*"

"You're having sparklings!" He was so sure of the fact that he didn't even state it in a question.

"*No!*"

"They're what!?" Leviticus and Avalon yelled/asked.

"Swell, even more to take up their time." Longarm growled.

Galvatron glared at all of them, clearly telling them without words to mind their own business. "If it's not _that_ then _what's_ so important?"

"*It's nothing of concern. I was simply informing you _not_ to tear the Hall down, again.*"

He glanced at the three mechs giving him expectant looks, "With _this_ counsel? No guarantees."

*O*

Optimus lead Aliena through the equivalent of a Cybertronian subway system that was still being rebuilt. Eventually they came to a very small station that looked to be forgotten, even before the war. Optimus chuckled, "It still looks like how I remembered it."

Aliena couldn't help a small laugh either.

He turned, "Stay here, I want to see if it's still there." When he returned a minute later he was grinning, "Offline your optics."

She laughed quietly and did so. Optimus grabbed her servo and turned the corner, "Alright, online them."

She stood in a room full of multi colored gems, every one cemented in the metal earth. Rays of varying colors jotted all around the smaller room. She looked up to see a small crack in the ceiling that allowed the light in to bounce off gems or crystals, creating beautiful patters of crisscrossing light. "I don't have the words…how did you find the place?"

He smiled fondly, "It was actually Ariel who found this place." Aliena looked at him, curious to know more, "These tunnels used to lead to mines during the Golden Age where gems and stones like these were mined. Once the threat of Megatron, war and abolished caste systems broke out, most of these mines were abandoned."

"So why was she here? Or was she looking for somewhere to stash stuff?"

Optimus smiled and shook his helm, "This mine in particular was shut down long before the war due to a large part of it collapsing, and being so close to Iacon…"

"Oh," she smiled and rested her helm on his shoulder, "well it amazing."

He sat down and pulled out the data pad from his subspace and worked on decrypting the file. Aliena would have teased him about working if it wasn't for the fact that he enjoyed it so much, especially right now when the fate of Cybertron and Earth didn't rested in the balance, that it was almost like play time to him. Much like a lot of men and taking care of their cars. She resigned herself to simply rest against him and observe the lights and gems, watching as they would occasionally change position or color as the entrance light beam moved. She was nearly asleep, listening to Optimus' digits as he tapped on the pad, when he intaked sharply.

Her optics shot open as Optimus suddenly said, breathlessly, "By the Allspark."

Looking down at the tablet her optics went wide, "Oh my, gosh."

* * *

Oh! what is it, what is it!? We must know! I am wicked ehhahaha! I left y'all there in the Avenger's one too-what? i couldn't have the one that haven't read it yet know _then_ read it...blame them for you're not knowing. but any guesses? i'll give you a virtual high five if you get it (like Beaks does in Duck Tales;)

Hope you have a fun Memorial Day if you're American or just a good weekend otherwise! Tata for now!


	11. Chapter 11

Hey, so _I_ think, just me, that i got this updated in a _reasonable_ amount of time. _really_ working on getting these chapter out sooner, especially now that its summer and i got no job...working on that one. but anywho, the pace will pick up here for a bit so enjoy!

 _ **Shout Outs!:**_

 **challishanlon99**

Oh no, there will be a _lot_ more, don't worry ;) Thanks, it means a lot, hope you like this chapter as well

 **Aloris2.0 the great**

oh, yes, cackles evilly. yup, yup, exactly how i felt, they can deal with it-though i did feel _slightly_ gilty for Galvatron, mine too ;)

 **Guest**

I _will_ , it's being proofread but please, _please, PLEASE_ stop asking me to update on _every_ story. i _know_ you love it and i'm glad for that, but it gets on my nerves when its on other stories, unrelated, and honestly, makes me want to update it less. but i'm very happy you enjoy it so much. but please keep it there for asking me to update

 **BarrelRacer1205**

Because i'm evil! There is a reason _why_ i like Loki and its not because he's cute, which he is. Oh Sparklings, soon, hush. it will be fun!

* * *

 **Galvatron sat across from the council.** Not much was getting done today, as they didn't want to discuss anything major without the Prime, they spent the better half of the cycle staring at each other in avoidance of another shouting match. They were currently having a civil, meaning neither side was shouting and/or threatening to offline the other, conversation about restoring the metal refinery in Tyger Pax. Silence had fallen in the Hall as they typed in some things.

The doors were thrown open, triumphantly disrupting the silence, and startling all present mechs. Heavy peedfalls rushed into the room, only to be stopped when Optimus nearly collided with the table to stop.

Galvatron blinked at him, momentarily forgetting the Prime, and seeing the easily excitable Orion Pax. Optimus vented heavily, like he had traveled full speed over a vast distance, and gripped the table, a pad clutched tightly in his free servo.

The counsel stood, shocked, at Optimus Prime's unorthodox entry.

Galvatron was the first to shake off the surprise but almost screwed up his name, "O-Optimus. What is the matter?"

His vents continued to pump air through his systems as he spoke, as calm and collected as ever but with an undertone of excitement. "I have found a way to restore Cybertron." He laid the pad on the table for all to see.

Optics widened as Leviticus reached for the tablet, only for Galvatron to grab it first. "By the pits of Kaon."

Aggravated, Leviticus pulled it from his servos and looked it over with the other council members. On the data pad were the _exact_ plans for building an Omega Lock along with the formula for beam used. There were also coordinates to where several pieces of the Lock lay in hiding—no doubt built by Solus Prime for such an emergency.

Avalon struggled to grasp its true meaning. "Wh-what is this? Is _this_ what you've been wasting time on?"

Both Galvatron and Optimus glared at him, Galvatron saying more than asking, "Do you truly _not_ _know_ what this is?"

Avalon let Longarm take the pad from him, "It is ancient gibberish that has no consequence today." His attention turned to Optimus, "You are not an archivist anymore _Optimus Prime_ , we do not have time to waste on some foolish want to explore ancient and decrepit technology."

Galvatron's optics were wide but it was Optimus who answered, "This 'decrepit technology' has the ability to restore Cybertron with the flick of the switch."

Galvatron nodded, "Two were built. The first was destroyed in saving the mud ball planet."

Optimus fixed him with a hard look, "It is called Earth."

"Earth, yes. Still a mud ball."

"And the second?" Leviticus growled, none to please that such a device was destroyed for such an inferior planet.

"Was used to restore Cybertron's core." Optimus answered, "There was not enough of the formula to fully restore the planet."

Longarm cut in, "Why's that?"

Galvatron answered this time, slight remorse in his tone, "It was intended to be used in Cyberforming Earth, so, not as much of the formula was needed."

Avalon's face hardened, "If it was possible to rebuild this Lock before, why hasn't it been done again?"

Galvatron stood, servos behind his back and face plates neutral. "Shockwave headed up its restoration. When it was destroyed again after Unicron's second rising, it was crushed beyond recognition, with no hope of piecing it back together I assume it was used for building metal."

He glanced at Optimus who nodded. "We also have no knowledge of the formula used. Ratchet has managed to figure out the Synthetic Energon piece but has yet to discover the CNA portion. Until now, all knowledge of the Omega Lock may as well have been lost."

Leviticus was the first to respond, "So, you're saying that we now have all the pieces to rebuild Cybertron quickly and efficiently?"

Both mechs nodded.

Longarm grinned, "Well then, I believe that this has become a new priority."

* * *

 **Ratchet** walked through the Space Bridge, per Optimus' request. Aliena was there to greet him. She smiled broadly but he remained gruff, "What is it? You're not dying so that's something. You _do_ realize that I was working on the CNA formula?"

She grabbed his servo and began dragging him out of the Bridge Bay. "Forget that! Optimus just decoded the data base from Iacon that we found!"

Ratchet's face brightened a bit. "Oh. Well what is so interesting about it that you drag me away?"

"It has the CNA formula."

He stopped, "This isn't a joke is it? Because if it is, it isn't funny."

She shook her helm, "No, it's not. It really does have it. And the SynthEn formula. _And_ the Omega Lock schematics."

Ratchet's jaw dropped, "W-what? You're serious?"

"Completely." Aliena grinned, dragging him again.

"I can't…this is…why do you need me?"

"Optimus thinks it's best to have someone who's already worked with the formula previously to work on it now." She pushed the Hall door open. "Besides, I thought you'd be ecstatic to work on it."

Ratchet finally came out of most of his shock, "I am but—when do we start?"

"Now if we can!"

They entered the room and saw Optimus, Galvatron and the council not arguing for once and actually cooperating. Optimus turned at their arrival, "Ratchet, it is good to have you back."

"It is good to be back under such happy circumstances."

A map of Cybertron slowly rotated above the table, a dozen red dots scattered across it. The council nodded at Ratchet before Optimus pushed a data pad towards him. "The formula is stored on this."

Ratchet took it eagerly and began scanning over it, "By the Allspark…Hmm…"

Optimus smiled faintly, "You may use Preceptor's lab as you work on the formula."

He nodded simply, optics never leaving the pad as he speed walked out of the room.

Aliena smirked, "We won't be seeing him for a while."

Optimus' attention returned to the map. "The file contained several locations of already completed pieces, once we have them we'll start construction of the pieces that are missing. Galvatron and his team shall begin reconstruction of the Omega Lock's base and power connection.

"Aliena, you will take two Aerialbots, Jazz and Arcee and recover this piece." He pointed to a spot near a blank patch, too far away to be the Sea of Rust but too small to be nothing. "Bumblebee, Prowl, and Ultra Magnus will take the three near Iacon and Kaon."

Aliena stared at the map, focusing on the dot over Kaon, her optics whirred quietly as they focused. She turned her helm but her optics remained on the dot for several seconds longer before fixing them on Optimus. "Isn't that were the gladiatorial arena was/is?"

He glanced at the dot before nodded, "Yes."

Her lips drew into a thin line, "And it's buried under there?"

"Yes." Optimus sounded less sure, not understanding what was bothering her.

"Isn't that where, uh, you-know-what with Jack happened?"

His optics widened, finally understanding. "That will cause a problem."

Galvatron and the council looked at the two with very questioning looks, practically demanding answers. Galvatron's processor was spinning madly trying to figure out just _what_ the ridiculous code between the two meant and why they just weren't _saying it_ , when it clicked. Optics widened in disbelief as he asked, "You don't mean to say that _that's_ where it was hidden when you…?"

Optimus' optics narrowed slightly and nodded, "It is."

Leviticus frowned, "What is _it_?!"

No one bothered to answer him, however, just continued speaking. "I will collect Jackson and recover this piece."

They nodded and Galvatron left.

Longarm spoke, his voice near a growl, "Just what you talking about that _he_ knows about but _we_ can't?"

Both Primes continued to ignore them. Aliena kissed him, "Be safe, looks like I'll get to have some fun exploring somewhere new."

He smiled, "You as well."

* * *

 **Aliena** found Jazz and Arcee waiting at the Bridging base, but was still waiting for Silverbolt and Skydive to arrive.

Arcee smiled, "How'd Ratchet take it?"

"Like a kid at Christmas."

They laughed while Jazz frowned, "Like a what at what?"

"Earth talk, Jazz." Arcee grinned. "Go visit some time, I'm sure Miko will _love_ you."

Two engines cut off as the mechs landed, Silverbolt saying quickly, "Sorry for the delay."

"Not a problem." Aliena turned to type in the coordinates and the Bridge swirled to life.

Jazz whistled, "You know, I've seen these used during the war, never actually went through one myself."

Arcee smirked as she walked through, "This'll be fun then."

Jazz frowned as she and Aliena walked through, "Wait, what does that mean!?" The Aerialbots followed them through and Jazz's optics widened as he hesitatively stepped through, "Guys?"

On the other side of the Bridge was an expanse of nothingness. The plane was clear for several hundred klicks. Aliena took a minute to look around, "What was this place?"

Arcee answered without much emotion, "Crystal City, it was destroyed before the war broke out."

"Oh." She looked down at the scanner that held the coordinates. "Well, wherever this is, it's probably underground. If we can find any remaining tunnels that'll probably help a lot."

Silverbolt looked around before looking at the group, "Anyone been through these tunnels before?"

Various 'no's' and shaking of helms was exchanged before Aliena raised the scanner and turned around. "I guess until we either see something or come upon the coordinates, we can just go towards them."

Jazz transformed, " _I'll go look for a tunnel entrance. Let you know soon_."

Aliena turned to Skydive, "Go with him and check from the air."

He nodded and transformed.

They walked for several minutes, she lost track of time as the continued to walk through the metal plane. They were near the softly blinking dot and she still didn't see anything different. Remorsefully she thought to herself that there was going to be a butt load of digging to do to reach the piece when Jazz's voice came over the coms like an angel from heaven.

" _Hey ya guys! We found an entrance!_ "

"Oh sweet Primus thank you." Aliena whisper/mumbled.

Arcee smirked at her and she proceeded to ignore the look.

She turned her helm to address Arcee and Silverbolt. She paused in what she was going to say as she looked at Arcee. It felt weird and, if she was being honest, _wrong_ to order someone like Arcee around who she knew was older than her in every way. It felt like she was a child ordering their mother or aunt or someone like that around. She shut her optics and shook her helm to dislodge the thoughts for now. "Let's transform and regroup at Jazz and Skydive's coordinates."

She and Silverbolt arrived before Arcee but not by much, having kept a slower speed for her. "Did you check any of the tunnels?"

Silverbolt shook his helm no while Jazz nodded, "Stuck ma helm in, they looked alright."

"Alright then, let's go."

They walked through the tunnels with rhythmic steps, weaving through several tunnels for almost an hour before they were only a few feet from the piece. She stopped by a wall, "It should be only a few feet behind this wall."

"Start digging?" Arcee asked.

She nodded and grabbed a bit of the metal wall that was cracked and bulged slightly and pulled, the metal groaned but didn't give. She put a peed to the wall and pulled more, grunting as the metal refused to move. Skydive and Jazz joined her a moment later and pulled on the stubborn metal as well. It held firm for a moment before it gave suddenly, sending all three crashing on top of each other.

More _solid_ metal lay behind the sheet and Jazz's shoulders sagged, "Scrap, really?"

A whirring sound started up beside them as Arcee got the hand drill running. Aliena smiled and laughed quietly, "Couldn't have gotten that running' two minutes ago?"

"Had to get it started first."

White sparks flew around the tunnel for several minutes until the drill hit a solid wall that wasn't breaking. Silverbolt stopped the drill as Arcee took a closer look, "It's a door, but it's got some kind of lock."

Aliena frowned and took a closer look at it. Her optics ridges creased in thought as she pulled out the scanner from her subspace and flipped through a couple of its functions before sighing and opening a com link. It was silent for a second before Optimus' voice crackled through, " _A-Aliena? What—need?_ "

"Optimus?" She moved locations trying to clear up the signal, "Are you underground already or…"

" _-es, -need…?_ "

"We found the piece, I think, but it's in a vault or something and it's lock. Did you decode a passcode or something?"

Only static answered her.

Her frown deepened as she moved again, "Optimus? Optimus, can you hear me?"

Arcee placed a servo on her arm, "It's probably nothing, we're almost halfway across Cybertron and both of you are underground. It more than likely just some sediment interference."

She nodded, "Probably." But something nagged at her spark that there was something more too it.

Jazz looked back at the door, "Anyone got any other ideas?"

She walked back to the door and tapped the console, it blinked for a moment before activating entirely. Her optics narrowed as she fiddled with it for a moment then placed her servo flat on the metal. She focused on the lock and a moment later it clicked, unlocked.

Silverbolt, Skydive and Jazz all stared wide optict. Silverbolt fumbling, "H-what? How did you do that?"

Aliena bit her lip as the door hissed open before saying simply, "It's just something I can do."

Jazz frowned at her, "Sorry, but that's not a natural 'something', what _was_ that? Is that a part of your other, abilities?"

She stuck her arm and helm into the vault, "No."

"Then what-" he sighed, "We won't tell the council or any of the other bots, right?" He turned to the Aerialbots who nodded and voiced their agreement.

She shook her helm as she grabbed hold of the piece and started pulling, immediately she knew it was large, "Arcee, some help?"

Arcee shot the bots a look of 'drop it' before she slid under Aliena and pulled from the bottom. They got enough of it out that the others could pull its end while the Aliena pulled from the middle and Arcee crawled into the vault and pushed. At one point they reached a conundrum as the tunnel's width wasn't wide enough for the piece's length. It took some finagling but they managed to maneuver it, inch by inch, to pull it out.

Silverbolt and Jazz looked at it despondently, Jazz optics so wide it hurt to look at them. "Well _that_ was fun…how are we going up to the surface to bridge it back?"

Aliena buried her helm in her servos and sighed, "We couldn't have gotten a smaller piece?"

Arcee looked at it with thin lips, "I don't know if _any_ of them will be small."

"Ok, Arcee, head back and see if you can get a couple carts or something to bring down and we'll start trying to push it, or something."

Arcee hid a grin as she transformed and sped out of the tunnel.

Silverbolt turned to Aliena, "Push it? Are you _kidding_ me?! We barely got it _out_ of there."

She made a calming gesture, "I said 'push it or something'. For now let's just get it on its side so we can get the carts underneath it."

The wings and doors on the back of the bots relaxed a bit as Jazz sighed, "Oh…I can manage that."

Arcee returned two and a half hours later with a couple extra bots who were pulling the carts. They immediately got to work on carefully lowering the piece again onto the carts without crushing them. After it was finally down Aliena turned to Arcee, "Any word from Optimus?"

She shook her helm, "No, but he did have to go to Earth to get Jack, along with a, uh, spacesuit for him so he had a later start. I'm sure he's _fine_ Aliena."

She smiled, but nervousness lay beneath it, "Yeah, thanks anyway Arcee."

As they walked through the tunnels she got lost in thought again, she subconsciously rubbed her upper leg as little needles seemed to stick it. The tunnel's exit was in sight and she, along with several others, vented in relief. Only a few peedsteps away from the entrance everyone stopped. An earth shaking roar shook everyone, the sound reverberating and echoing through the Omega Lock piece.

Aliena stared straight ahead at the exit while the others glanced between it and her. Jazz finally breaking silence after the roar, "Uh, please tell me that _that_ was your Predacon friend."

She took off for the exit and whispered as she passed him, "I hope so."

A blank, cloudless sky greeted her optics. Fear still rushed through her lines as she did a 360 scan of the area. Just as she got to about 270 degrees did her fears become warranted. A very large shape was quickly flying towards her along with a smaller one. "Frag."

She ran away from the entrance to draw their attention and commed Arcee. "That roar, Shockwave's Predacon, I think Starscream's with him. I'll draw their attention and you guys get that piece through!"

" _I'm coming and_ I'll _handle Starscream._ "

She suppressed a sigh/groan, "Fine, just make sure the others _know to get that piece_ back to Iacon."

She didn't have time to say anything else as the Predacon shot a large stream of fire at her. She raised a shield until it passed and activated her foot thrusters to jump over the lake of now molten metal while firing at him. She had to twist and land awkwardly as Starscream added his own to the mix.

The seeker was going to reach her first when Arcee landed on his wing and proceeded to fire at his canopy and controls. The Predacon landed heavily, nearly missing her, as she kept pelting it but all the shots continued to bounce off his armor. Foot thrusters activated again to dodge a swipe of his claw and flip over the tail. She heard Arcee yell but she couldn't tell if it was a war cry or one of pain and was too focused on her own fight to pay too much attention.

Another stream of fire engulfed her shield, it lasted longer than the last one and began melting the metal beneath her before it finally let up and she jumped out while sending a subsonic wave at him. It caught him in the snout and dinged the metal but did little more than startle and anger him.

She dodged another torrent of flames and claws and hit the ground, rolling out of the failed landing. She fired at a crack in his armor as she ran to get clear. His helm swung around, optics blazing hatefully as he eyed her, and she tracked its movements, preparing for the next torrent but missed his tail. It crunched the metal in the back left thigh and sent her skidding several hundred yards with a cry.

Her intakes and vents matched heavy breathing as she pushed herself up with a servo and blaster, wincing as pressure was placed on the leg. The ground trembled as he stalked over and she stood with a grimace, blaster switching back to a servo so she had both hands to use her abilities with.

He jumped at her right and she stumbled left while hurling another subsonic wave with a bolt of energy. She hit the ground with a gasp of pain and weariness, not realizing _how much_ she had put into the shot. It hit his side and significantly dented it while much of the wave bounced off and slammed her into the ground.

He stumbled as the energy bolt coursed through him and she pushed herself up to run when a large claw slammed into her and pinned her to the ground again, tearing through her side as he did so. A pained yell ripped from her vocalizer. He continued to press down until she could hardly move, one arm stuck under a talon while the other tried to push it off her neck cables.

The claw suddenly eased off, though still there. Energon rushed back to her helm and color and sound returned. She saw a form standing off to her right before she head him speaking. "—need her alive."

It growled, no doubt Starscream called it something rather rude and demeaning. Starscream looked up and frowned before looking down at her as she squirmed under the claw, "So what were you transporting that you left yourself so vulnerable? To a Predacon no less?"

She saw a small form quickly but quietly making its way up behind Starscream. Her attention returned to Starscream and as he leered over her, though still coming _nowhere near_ close to Megatron. She clicked her response to him and his face plate melted into a livid glare, knowing she got the words right she felt internally proud but the thought was ripped away a second later as the claw constricted again.

Arcee was still too far away to attack and she was quickly losing consciousness. No other options coming to mind, she clenched her jaw shut and switched her forms. The claw fell instantly at the loss of mass beneath it as she rolled between the talons. Her lungs were already burning for air as she stood to get out of the claw only to slip on her own Energon, jarring her wound even more, blood began flowing and dripping off her torn jacket into the Energon.

She switched her forms just as she pushed herself up and out of the talons.

Starscream cursed as she escaped the Predacon's hold only to have his attention snagged by Arcee as she sent him careening into the Predacon. The Predacon snarled at Starscream who argued for it to be mad at Arcee.

A Ground Bridge opened up directly behind Aliena. She turned, blasters glowing, as bots ran out. They deactivated as Silverbolt, Skydive and Jazz came through. Silverbolt grabbing her arm to steady and help her through but she shook her helm, "I can manage, help, Arcee."

He looked at her hard, "Just get through that Bridge."

Not having the strength to argue, she just held her vents to reserve what little energy she had left and trotted—somewhere between walking and fast walking—to the Bridge. The blue/green/white glow faded to a dimmer but still well-lit control room. Knockout was there and grabbed her before she stumbled too far but her attention was still on the Ground Bridge, optics wide with fear until the other ran through—all relatively unharmed.

Knockout growled, knowing what was running through her processor, "They're all here now, now move or-"

She grunted as her left leg gave out, the side that wasn't supported, fell into a kneeling position. Her more pointed digits digging into Knockout's armor—again he curse because of the paint job.

"Scrap!" His helm whipped around to the group, "Someone get Ratchet to the med-bay _now_!"

The Bridge operator raised a digit to protest, "But he's-"

Knockout snapped as Aliena's hold on him began to weaken, "I don't give a slag _what_ he's doing just _get him THERE!_ "

Arcee had already transformed and was out the door by the time he finished the little rant.

Silverbolt rushed over and grabbed Aliena's other side and helped carry her. Knockout let go as both were too big for him to properly assist, she grunted as she managed to move her peeds in some kind of sync and didn't notice when they made it too the med bay—having clenched her optics shut and let Silverbolt guide her.

She did realize that she had been laid down and vaguely hear Ratchet mutter something before she fell into recharge.

*O*

Silverbolt, Skydive, Jazz and Arcee stood outside the med-bay, some looking more concerned—Silverbolt, Skydive and Jazz—than others—Arcee. They sat in silence until little footsteps ran into the bay.

A small figure stood hunched over, hands on his knees as he took in deep, gasping breaths, "Ne—need R-Ratchet or, Knock-out."

Arcee was on her peeds instantly, "Jack?"

Galvatron almost staggered in, "KNOCKOUT!"

In his arms dangled a nearly unconscious and heavily bleeding, Optimus Prime.

* * *

 **Starscream** growled as he clutch a bloody arm. The Predacon glowered at him and he scowled right back, " _You're_ the one who let her slip through your claws."

His tail swished behind him threateningly, his only response.

Starscream turned his back to him as he attempted to stem the flow of Energon.

A large pool of Energon lay not ten feet from him. He knelt by it and growled again, _we were_ so _close!_ His train of thought stopped as he noticed a small pool of red, no wider than a human's hand, within the pool of blue—neither mixing. He reached a clawed digit and scooped out a bit of both the red and blue. He grinned dangerously, "Oh yes, this will do quite nicely."

* * *

Duhn, dun, duuuu! Another semi-cliffhanger! i know no good bone, actually i do but i also enjoy these. don't worry though, next chapter you'll find out what happened.

Also, i wanted to make a note of this since this was never addressed in the series, i personally like the idea that Optimus made Jack the guardian/keeper of the Key to Vector Sigma so that's what's happening here in case that connection wasn't made. but that it! until the next chapter you all can wonder...and i wonder what Starscream/shockwave has in plan for poor Jemina ;)


	12. Chapter 12

Hey all! Here's the next chapter and i hope you enjoy!

 _ **Shout Outs!:**_

 **Aloris2.0** **the great**

thanks!

 **Cashagon**

*Loki grins and laughs evilly* ...you'll see i think, next chapter? haha, thanks for the reminder, i almost forgot to put something in this chapter ;)

 **gwencarson126**

Oh yes, thickens like gravy. Thanks!

* * *

 **Seven hours ago…**

 **Raf grinned and waved at Optimus who nodded and looked around, "Where is Jack?"**

"He's out with his mom getting groceries." Raf answered.

Miko popped up on the couch, "Whatcha need, boss bot?"

"We are in need of the Key to Vector Sigma."

Miko's face scrunched in thought.

"That doodad you gave him when you went to fight Unicron?" Fowler asked, walking out of his office.

Optimus raised an optic ridge at the Key's description but nodded.

Raf looked up from his computer, "What do you need that for?"

"Wait," Miko cut in, "you didn't lose your memories again did you!?"

He chuckled, "No Miko. We need it to find a piece of the Omega Lock."

Jayce walked around the corner, having come out of his room at the familiar voice, "Optimus! Is Jemina here?!"

He smiled sadly, "No, we did not come to visit this time but soon."

Jayce's shoulder's fell but he nodded, "Okay."

The humans were silent, Fowler finding his voice first, "Finding a piece? How many of those things were made?"

Optimus returned his attention to the older humans, "One, with a second one partially built—those pieces remain scattered across Cybertron, and one resides in Vector Sigma's vault."

A car pulled in and Jack jumped out, "Hey Optimus, is Arcee here!?"

"Unfortunately not but I am in need of your assistance."

Miko plopped back onto the couch with a pout, "So unfair. He gets to go, _again_!"

Jayce frowned at her and crossed his arms, "I've _never_ been."

She pouted, "Ok, my trip didn't count."

Fowler pinched the bridge of his nose, "I better go get that space suit again."

Optimus nodded, "Many thanks Agent Fowler."

He waved it off and disappeared back into his office.

Two hours later Jack was dressed and ready. June was fitting his helmet into place, "It's lucky that NASA didn't need their suit back right away and let Fowler store it here."

Optimus stood patiently by the Ground/Space Bridge controls.

Jack flashed him a thumbs up.

Miko jabbed her thumb at his chest, "I want pictures, you better bring back pictures!"

Jack rolled his eyes, "I don't have a camera Miko."

"Then use your phone!"

"I don't have my phone."

"Come on! If I can't go I want to see it _somehow_!"

Optimus smiled and kneeled down, "After its restoration, Cybertron's atmosphere should be breathable."

Miko's eyes popped, "You'll take me!?"

"Yes, I believe-"

"Thank you, thankyou, thankyouthankyou!" She hugged his hanging digit.

He recovered quickly from his shock enough to smile.

Miko squealed and ran up to Raf and Jayce, hugging them tightly—unable to contain her joy. Raf laughed from her enthusiasm and pushed his glasses.

The Bridge activated and they walked through. The first thing Jack noticed was that they Bridged into a building, and it looked very nice—nothing like the broken down wrecks he'd last seen.

They walked out of the building to a fairly busy street, several Cybertronians were driving or running along. It was beautiful.

Optimus started walking and he had to run to keep up, apparently their paces were a lot faster than what they used on Earth. Optimus sensed his struggle and offered him a hand. "Thanks."

Optimus smiled and they hurried through the city, weaving between buildings for shortcuts. As they, Optimus, walked Jack caught the looks of several Cybertronians. Most were confused or curious as they chatted with each other in a combination of chirps, clicks and strange words—he could only guess that it was Cybertronian.

Optimus ignored them all as he proceeded to the city's edge and transformed.

"How far from Kaon are we?"

"A little under thirty minutes."

Jack nodded and sat quietly for a minute. "How's Arcee doing?"

"Quite well, she met up with a few old friends recently. She misses her partner though."

Jack grinned and pulled out the Key, holding it in front of him where it glowed brightly. Unlike Iacon, Kaon was dead and cold—looking every bit the part that he remembered it as. Optimus drove straight for the arena, minus the statue of Megatron, which laid in pieces everywhere within a mile's radius, everything looked the same. His eyes instantly dropped to the dents and gashes in the ground from when Arcee fought the Insecticon.

Optimus saw Jack's face and transformed, "There are no Insecticons in the vicinity."

Jack smiled bashfully, "Uh, yeah. Thanks."

He brought up the Key and the floor rose, revealing an entryway that had its door torn off. He turned to say something to Optimus, only to stop when he saw his optics looking distant. He tried to follow his gaze but only saw stadium seats, realizing he was no doubt remembering something he ducked his head.

Optimus turned to him a moment later, "Are you ready?"

Jack nodded, "Yeah, but first, uh. Last time there was horde of Scraplets in there…I think they died with the Insecticon but…"

Optimus offered him a servo, "Thank you for the warning. I will be vigilant."

The entered the darkness and Optimus activated the Brights on his chassis, Jack blinked and pocketed the Key as Optimus consulted the tracker. The came to a Y, Jack remembered taking the right path, but they turned down the left. He sat as Optimus' constant sway made him fight off drowsiness. He started to try and start up a conversation but shut his mouth, not knowing what to talk about.

Apparently Optimus seemed to notice his hesitation and asked, "How is school going?"

Jack mentally cursed Cybertronian sensors, "Fine, summer break just started so that's fun…kinda boring though since hardly anyone's there anymore."

Optimus nodded, "You will be a, junior next year, correct?"

Jack grinned, "Actually I'm a junior now." At Optimus' confused expression he elaborated, "Once summer starts you go up to the next grade. Jemina been teaching you Earth stuff?"

He nodded with a smile, "A little, not as much as I'd like; though, that will come in time. Right now it is more important for her to learn about Cybertron."

"Yeah, sounds fun…except for maybe the politics, then again that could be interesting. What are Cybertronian politics like? Do we have anything like them on Earth?"

Optimus chuckled, "I wouldn't know but I would be happy to teach you more sometime. As would Ratchet I believe."

Jack grinned, "Well maybe I'll ask him then…"

"What is on your mind Jack?"

They turned a corner and the air continued to get colder but not overly bothersome, thanks to the suit. "It's just. I was thinking about after high school, what I'll do then."

Optimus nodded, "That is a good thing to ponder. Do you have any ideas?"

He shrugged, "Not really but, well I wanna be with you guys." He looked up but not at Optimus, "It's just that after everything I've been through with you guys, I guess I don't want to give it up." He turned and grinned at him, "How often can you say that a sentient, robotic being from a different planet is your best friend and partner?"

Optimus grinned with a chuckle, "Agent Fowler seems keen on the idea as well."

He nodded, "Yeah, we've talked a little bit."

"We could always use a representative here on Cybertron."

Jack's eyes widened, "What?"

Optimus looked down at him, "Once Cybertron has been rebuilt and stabilized, I would like to continue and better relationships with Earth."

Jack didn't know if his eyes could get any wider, "Wow, hu, Fowler otta have fun with that. Man, Fowler on Cybertron, that'll be good."

"I wasn't thinking of him."

They stopped in the middle of the hallway and Optimus felt for a latch, finding something he pressed it and a small door slid to the side to reveal a keypad. Optimus frowned in thought before typing in a code. The console beeped negatively and Optimus tried a different code, this time it didn't beep but instead slid open part of the wall. They peeked in and saw a piece laying on the floor, at least a third as tall as Optimus and Primus knows how long.

Jack frowned, "That could be a problem."

Optimus set him down on the piece, "Could you get an estimate of how long it is?"

Jack nodded and cautiously walked along the piece, "Hey Optimus?"

"Yes?"

"If it's too long for you to get out, who are you going to get to help you?"

"That is a good question." Jack could tell by the rise and flux of his voice that he didn't want to get anyone.

Jack stopped at its edge, thinking mentally and looking back at Optimus, "I'd say it's at least 45 feet, if not a little longer."

Optimus nodded, "I can attempt to pull it out."

He offered a servo and Jack quickly hopped on. He lowered him to the floor and pulled out a few cables, giving them to Jack, "I'll pull it out but then I'll need you to secure it to my trailer hitch."

Jack nodded and stood back as Optimus pulled the piece out. Jack twitched and balled his hands as the metal screeched, wishing he could plant his hands over his ears to block _some_ of the noise. A lot of pulling and grunting later the piece was finally out, Jack breathed in relief as Optimus tipped the piece on its edge and quickly transformed, backing up under the piece which was now a little taller than him. A second later the piece fell over onto his trailer bed.

Jack ran to the trailer and wove it through the undercarriage before figuring out that the end of the cable was magnetic. Hurrying to the side of the piece he stated to climb, only to fall on his butt after the first foot hold—space suits were _not_ good climbing.

He yelped as someone took the cable from him, only to drop his head from embarrassment a second later. Optimus' holoform, Orion, stood there with an amused smile and grabbed the cable, effortlessly scaling the piece. He ran around Optimus to the other side to catch the cable after Orion weaved it through a few holes in the piece and secured its end in the same fashion.

The driver side door opened and Jack climbed in, watching the cabling closely through the mirrors. As he started forward the cabling looked strained but remained firm. Jack sighed as they made slow progress, Optimus' motor revving loudly as the piece screeched from being drug behind them. He frowned and asked, "How you doing Optimus?"

His answer was strained, "Alright, I will make it until we are out of the vault and can call for back up…I hope Aliena's team is having an easier time."

Jack laughed, "Yeah, me too."

He didn't ask anything more to allow Optimus to concentrate.

When they saw daylight after more than an hour of slow progress it was a beautiful sigh, both man and mech sighed in relief. Once they were clear of the vault with the piece, Jack jumped out of the cab and started detaching the cable; the vault sinking back into the ground like a silent falling mountain.

Orion was already on top of the piece, unweaving it from the top and dropping it down to Jack when he froze, growling lowly, "Jackson, hurry."

Jack blinked, looking up at him for a second before Orion jumped down and pushed him under the trailer. Jack mentally froze, trying to understand why Optimus would suddenly do something like that when a voice cut off his thoughts. "Hm, miscalculation—the techno-organic is not at this location."

Jack could feel the anger rolling off of Optimus as his chassis vibrated, he quickly set to unhitching Optimus from the piece as heavy peedsteps closed quickly. He rolled out from under the trailer as the cable gave a 'click' of releasing and Optimus revved to pull himself out from under the piece. It fell with a thunderous clap—pushing Jack farther away. A purple peed missed him by a hair, the shockwave from the piece's fall pushing him the extra distance to not be squished.

Ion fire caught Optimus on his trailer bed and back half of the cab before he could transform, sending him skidding and rolling as he transformed. He slowed and stopped his unceremonious rolling by driving his arm blade into the ground, face mask snapping shut.

Jack stood and start to run in the opposite direction, only to dodge the grasping servo of a Decepticon. He yelped and backpedaled, hitting his back on the piece, watching as the unfamiliar 'con advanced.

There was a screeching of metal on metal followed by Optimus' unintelligible shout. Two of the tree Decepticons that had come with the purple mech ran to his aid while the first reached for him again. Thinking quickly, he dodged to servo and ran between the legs of his, he assumed, kidnapper—he hoped it wouldn't be murderer—sprinting across the ridiculously long metal arena. The mech attempting to grab him gave chase, pouring more adrenalin into Jack.

Optimus snarled as he swiped at Shockwave, optics narrowing as it merely scraped the thick armor. He blocked an attack before thrusting his blade at another. They proved to be much more troublesome than Vehicons piling onto him, one sinking their blade into his thigh. Blue Energon instantly began seeping out as the blade was removed. He snarled and transformed his servo into a blaster, shooting at the mech while fending off the other with his blade and constantly dodging Shockwave's ion blasts.

A blaster and terrified scream grabbed his attention. He turned his helm just enough to see Jack running with his hands over his head as he prepared to dive away from a grasping servo. A deep growl rose within him as he flung the mech holding his blade into Shockwave and uppercut the other before taking quick aim and firing at the mech chasing Jack. The shot hit him in his side and Optimus started towards him.

Jack heard what was happening and turned to take a running glance at Optimus to see if he was alright, his steps faltered as Shockwave stood back up and fired at him. He couldn't get his voice to work in time and the shot hit Optimus in the back just below the helm. Finally his voice came back, "No!"

Optimus fell without a noise and Jack froze, torn between running out of the death-trap arena or running to Optimus—though for what his mind couldn't formulate. The choice was snatched from when a servo latched around him, yanking him off the ground.

Shockwave walked over to the fallen Prime while another mech kicked his side, seeing if he was truly unconscious. When he didn't react Shockwave looked up and ordered, "Bring them both—they can be used as bait for the techno-organic."

The mech that had kicked him bent down to fix a pair of stasis cuffs on Optimus when his optics suddenly onlined and he swung out with his sword, impaling deep it in the mech's shoulder guard.

Jack couldn't help the grin and yelled, "Yeah!" Only to grunt a moment later as the servo constricted.

Optimus heard the yell but had to parry the second mech's fire. A limp was starting to set in despite his best attempts to stifle it and sore and stiffness settling into his arms and legs from Shockwave's hit. He raised an arm to block a fist and swung out his other, contacting with the mech's side. He dodged Shockwave's blaster turned club only to jump into his fist, sending him to the ground—bouncing and rolling before he could right himself.

Energon trickled into his optic while more poured from his mouth. He balled both fists, glancing in Jack's direction and noting its distance before ducking under an ion blast and blocking a fist.

Jack squirmed in the servo that held him before eyeing a small gap in the armor. He glanced up at the mech then thrusting his hand in and yanking on as many wires as he could at once. The mech yelped and instinctively opened his servo. Jack grinned before he yelped, hitting the ground and landing on his feet wrong, sending him sprawling and tumbling along the ground. He stood and ran, hissing as his ankle protested but ignored it.

The mech that held him glanced in his direction before running to help his partner with Optimus.

So focused on Shockwave and the other mech, he missed the approaching mech from behind until his blades drove into his side and shoulder. He grunted and fell to his knees as the blades were drawn out, blinking trying to clear his optics and mind from the pain that overrode all thought. Something rammed into his side and helm, toppling him onto his back—optics dimming.

Jack made it to the edge of the arena where he could find any number of places to hide when he heard a crash from where Optimus was fighting. His eyes widened as he saw him fall and his heart stopped. He took a step forward, praying Optimus would get up again that it was just a feint but as Shockwave drove his peed into his side and Optimus fell flat he lost his ability to breath.

The mechs picked up Optimus, preparing to drag him through a Ground Bridge but halted as a line of ion fire circled them. Galvatron landed heavily, cannon already preparing to fire again, "Release him."

Shockwave seemed to growl in his answer, "You have abandoned _your_ cause, Megatron."

His optics narrowed but didn't respond verbally, answering with a louder hum of his cannon.

Jack tentatively stepped closer but still stayed well out of range.

One of the mechs, a large gash in his dark purple shoulder growled, "You've gone soft."

Having enough, Galvatron shot at the mech holding Optimus' left arm. The Prime fell from the lack of support with a quiet grunt.

The three mechs charged him, none landing solid hits except the purple mech, albeit small. Galvatron's sword slid out and met the mech's own. The mech glared at Galvatron, his attacks seeming to communicate some message while Galvatron snarled.

Another mech attacked from behind but missed as Galvatron swiftly dodged.

Jack turned as peedsteps got closer. He hit the floor with a shout as the third mech missed his grab.

Galvatron heard Jack's shout and snarled, memories of orns again surfacing. He snapped the blade of his current attacker and was about to drive his own through his spark when the purple mech shouted at him, "Surrender or the Prime dies."

His helm snapped up to see Shockwave standing with one peed on Optimus' back as he weakly struggled to throw him off while the other mech held his blaster above his helm. Another yelp from Jack made him turn and catch Jack diving into a small nook in the wall, too small for the mech to reach in—but only a matter of time before he fished Jack out.

Galvatron lowered his head with a dark chuckle, "You should know better than to challenge _the_ former Gladiator of Kaon, Cyclonus."

Within seconds of each other, Galvatron threw the shard of sword in Jack's direction—cutting off the attacking mech—while shooting at Cyclonus in the next instance. He ran at Shockwave a moment later, sword extended, but the mech jumped back. A Ground Bridge opened in the middle of the arena and the mechs ran towards it and disappeared, much to Galvatron's displeasure.

Jack crept out of the crack he'd taken refuge in ran towards Optimus and Galvatron. The latter picking up the unconscious former, slinging an arm around his neck and carefully holding his side. Another Ground Bridge opened and they walked through, Jack following Optimus closely.

Once through Galvatron looked down at Jack and ordered, "Go to the med bay and ensure that either Knockout or Ratchet is there."

Jack nodded and started out, only to stop a step later, "Where is med bay?"

The femme operating the Ground Bridge answered, "Ten clicks right then left and it'll be in front of you. Move, I have another emergency transmission."

Galvatron glared at her but Jack was already running out. By the time he got to the med bay Galvatron and Optimus weren't too far behind. He put his hands on his knees and heaved in breaths while trying to speak, "Ne—need R-Ratchet or, Knock-out."

A scuffling of peeds and a familiar voice made him look up, "Jack?"

He was frozen until Galvatron entered, "KNOCKOUT! Get your aft out here, whatever patient you have can wait!"

He continued to carry Optimus inside and heard an argument going on in the back room. _Hm, sounds like both mechs are here_. It mattered little to him, he only needed one, preferably Ratchet, much to his pride's dismay but the Autobot medic always was a better one.

Arcee ran forward and scooped up Jack who was still panting, "Are you ok? What happened?" She directed the question to either mech or man but Galvatron pointedly ignored her and continued to the back room.

Silverbolt stood about to say something but froze at Galvatron's look.

His processor struggled to come up with a reason for his being here until he took in all the company present, coming to one conclusion. He burst into the back room and saw Aliena laying on the table and not looking much better than Optimus.

Ratchet grabbed Optimus' other side and guided him to another table before shoving him out. He walked out to Jack explaining to Arcee and the others what happened. He listened before asking what happened to Aliena. As Jack finished Arcee frowned, "Their up to something."

"Who?" Jack asked.

"Shockwave and that traitorous Starscream." Galvatron growled.

Silverbolt stared at Jack in awe, " _That's_ a human? You guys really are weird."

Jack frowned and crossed his arms, "Who said we're weird?"

Jazz answered with a shrug, "Aliena."

"Oh," his arms and shoulders fell, "I guess she does have authority to say that."

Arcee laughed before Galvatron got their attention, "I will need help in retrieving the piece. It was left in Kaon."

The bots present stood and followed Galvatron out. Arcee set Jack on the ground again, "I'll see you in a bit, partner."

He grinned and decided to sit under a chair to wait, rubbing his sore and swelling ankle.

* * *

 **Shockwave** entered the lab to find Starscream and the Predacon waiting there. Naturally he made a logical conclusion, "She was not at your location either?"

Starscream frowned, "Oh she was, but the beast let her get away."

The Predacon growled and Shockwave snapped at Starscream, "You had her?"

"In his grasp." He hissed.

Shockwave pelted Starscream, "You fool, we need her for anything to progress!"

Starscream yelped and cupped one servo around the other, "Careful! It's the only sample I got!"

Shockwave turned around, audio-wings raised in interest, "Sample?"

Starscream showed him a digit that was covered in a blue substance. Had Shockwave had optics he would have rolled them. "We need _both_ her life bloods, having her Energon does nothing to help us without her human blood."

Starscream smirked, "I guess it's a good thing she switched forms and lost some then."

Shockwave's helm snapped up from the repair kit he was standing over, returning to Starscream's servo and grabbing it harshly.

Starscream yelped indignantly, "Hey, watch it! This was _not_ easy to procure!"

Shockwave scraped the liquids off with a small metal stick, examining it closely before putting it in an analyzer, "This will suffice."

Starscream rolled his optics as he thoroughly washed his servo, muttering, "Suffice he says. I'd like to see him face her when she's mad…at what I'm not sure."

Shockwave snapped back, making Starscream's wings flatten, "I'd _love_ to watch you be pelted by Optimus and Galvatron."

* * *

And done! we'll find out what their planning next chapter. until next update.

NOTE on GARGOYLES story, it is in the process of being reviewed by WolfLord so don't came to me asking for updates, ask him...i'm a-waitin' on him.

Anyway have a great weekend.


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